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MOTIVATION OF ADULTS' PROFESSIONAL TRAINING ACTIVITY
S. A. Medvedeva
The article considers issues connected to training people in the system of postdiploma professional education. The results of pilot research on adult trainees' motivation for doing professional training activities are presented.
Key words: post-diploma professional education, professional training activities, motivation.
Supplementary professional education, and obtaining a new profession, has a special significance at the present stage of socio-economic reforms of education since it is conducive to the development of a person's general abilities, his or her professional self-awareness and motivation, and also is an efficient means for overcoming the crises of professional socialization [2]. The requirements for the peculiarities of an adult person's psychological development are becoming ever more severe because the role of the psychological factor in the contemporary economy is becoming increasingly important. In the context of continuous education carried out not only during the school period, but also throughout the further life of a person, the contingent of adult people is also involved in the process of education. Requirements for the intellect of an adult person, for his or her mobility and ability to learn continuously, become increasingly severe in the context of the technical upgrade of production facilities, the emergence of new professions, explosive growth of information volumes, and expansion of human activities [3, 5].
At the same time, an adult trainee has a number of specific personal features: an adult is aware of him-or herself as an independent, self-managing person who treats any attempts to manage him or her with prejudice. He or she accumulates a large amount of life, social and professional experience that shapes his or her world outlook, and from the perspective whereby he or she assesses any incoming information. Unlike a secondary or tertiary school student who gets his or her first basic education, an adult educatee strives to apply the obtained knowledge immediately, and to solve his or her life problems with their help. Researchers conventionally divide them into three groups: the first one is connected with competence improvement (a trainee carries out analysis and assessment of educational professional activity him- or herself); the second one, with a personal state; the third one, with certain barriers of educational activity perception (which belong to anyone in life). Considering these peculiarities may well facilitate successful solution of the tasks of vocational education of adults.
Unfortunately, the existing system of supplementary vocational education does not pay enough attention to the study of conscious motives in the vocational training activity of adults. The practical actuality of the problem under consideration is defined, on the one part, by dynamic processes in the system of professional training and retraining, and by strict requirements for the efficiency of trained specialists' labor results. On the other hand, it is defined by the need for creating conditions resulting in efficient learning activity of adults in the continuous education system.
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Researchers specializing in the sphere of analysis of adult education stimuli and motives pay attention to the need for understanding several groups of controversies by a person: (1) disproportion between the knowledge level needed for the profession in question and the actual one; (2) controversies of a selfreflexive nature caused, on one hand, by striving to understand oneself better and deeper, and on the other hand, by an insufficiently developed mechanism of reflexive control, and insufficient understanding of oneself; (4) controversies between a person's knowledge level and new problematic cognitive tasks that are set not only by practical needs, but by the person him- or herself (quite frequently, an adult is faced with the task of building or rebuilding his or her character, selfprogramming his or her mind as a whole, etc.) [7].
The issues of studying motives as a factor of efficiency of adults' vocational training activities are hard to resolve without drawing on the psychological essence of the process of their establishment, preservation and development. Having arisen, the motives of adults' educational activities become an important link in regulating future new professional activity. In this regard, we have carried out a pilot study aimed at detecting the leading motivation and the motives of vocational training activity of adults studying in the supplementary vocational education program "Psychology". Testing (questionnaires "Self-Assessment of Professional Pedagogical Motivation" by N.P. Fektissin (modified), "Diagnostics of Motivation Structure of a Personality" by V.E. Milman) and polling [4, 6] were used as diagnostic tools. A total of 30 female students training under the supplementary vocational education program "Psychology" took part in the survey. The age of the persons under survey ranged from 25 to 50 years old.
The results of the survey permitted us to elicit the following stages of professional motivation development: the lowest stage (sporadic curiosity) is presented as the leading professional motivation in only a small part of the surveyed persons (16.6%), while a third of the surveyed persons (33.3%) have risen to a higher stage (developing inquisitiveness). A functional interest characteristic of higher professional motivation is being developed in another third of the surveyed persons. The rest of the pollees (13.47%) do not elicit the leading motive of their supplementary education. Such results may bear witness to the fact that a part of the pollees (36.3%) strives to apply the obtained knowledge in practice. These people are highly interested in specialized literature and practical psychology training, and they are potential participants of conferences and seminars on psychology. Another part of the group under survey (33.3%) strives to acquire new knowledge, feels an interest in everything that may enrich their life experience, teach new things, and give new impressions and new skills. Such trainees attend lectures regularly, and read articles on psychology in magazines and newspapers.
The results of the personal motivation structure diagnostics have shown that the majority of the surveyed persons (66.5%) has a well expressed "working" personal motivation profile; whereupon the highest indicators pertain to creative activity. The "general life" motivation profile is expressed in another third of the pollees (33.5%). According to V.E. Milman, the author of the surveying procedure used, a personal motivation profile is a totality of stable motives making individuals' activity aimed at mastering a profession purposeful, conditioning a person's commitment to creative self-realization [4]. Focusing on such a definition of a
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motivation profile, one can elicit the following leading motivation tendencies of the supplementary psychological education students under survey: striving for activity, an opportunity for developing one's creative potential.
A poll was carried out in order to obtain additional information and define the diagnostic results more precisely. According to the poll results, two-thirds of the pollees plan to work in the profession they are studying, while the rest of the pollees have not yet formed a definite opinion, or answered that they do not plan to work as psychologists. The pollees stated that their principal motives were, primarily, their interest in the psychologist's profession, secondarily, a drive to know something new. Whereupon one-third of the pollees state that getting a diploma was their principal motive. As a whole, such results are comparable with those of the diagnostics and evidence that social activity is a stable personal tendency for the majority of trainees, and desire for knowledge acts as a motivation.
Answers to the question what the pollees need psychological knowledge for have shown that for nearly a half of the pollees (48%) aiding people is a priority. This characterizes the extent of such personal motive as social usefulness. Another part of the pollees (38%) stated that the desire to understand themselves and others was a significant factor. This fact may characterize the actualization of striving for being accepted by the surrounding people. The remainder of the pollees (14%) stated that using psychological knowledge as a source of income was a significant factor for them. Material motives can be considered as essential for them. The most frequently encountered proposal on improving the content of education was to increase the number of practice-oriented disciplines. Most probably, this fact reflects the overall striving of trainees to master practical technologies without a thorough theoretical and methodological analysis of the impact of its content on human psyche.
Thereby, the results of a pilot survey of trainees acquiring supplementary psychological vocational education permit us to record the most common indicators of the state of actual development of adults' vocational study motivation and to substantiate further in-depth study of this problem.
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Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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