Adult student hopes, expectations and levels of satisfaction : an exploratory study

Abstract

Generalizations and the assumptions underlying them provide the basis for the practice of any discipline. Adult educators have supposed that the hopes and expectations students bring to a learning situation have important bearings on the effectiveness of that experience; it has also been assumed that the levels of satisfaction students' achieve reflect what has transpired in a course as well as what consequences are likely to result. Because these suppositions are central to the practice of adult education, they seemed worthy of empirical scrutiny. The study focuses on the relationships between students' idealistic hopes for a course and their satisfaction with it, as well as their more realistic expectations for it and subsequent satisfaction. Major attention is also given the bases for expressed hopes and expectations, and the perceived consequences of levels of satisfaction. The actual learning situations studied were four credit and four non-credit courses sponsored by the Colorado State University Center for Continuing Education during the Fall Semester, 1976. One hundred and fourteen students and their eight teachers responded to questionnaires administered at the beginning, mid-term and at the end of each course. The findings of the study are noteworthy in that empirical support for many commonly assumed relationships was either not impressive or nonexistent..