Attitudes Toward Adult Education: An Empirically-Based Conceptualization

The purpose of this research was to explore the conceptual organization of attitudes toward adult education and to determine whether the conceptualization could be used to identify groups of adults based on these attitudes. The data base for the study consisted of information obtained from 275 individuals using the Adult Attitudes Toward Continuing Education Scale (AACES). Factor analysis of the data led to the identification of three dimensions of attitude toward adult education: Enjoyment of Learning, Importance of Adult Education, and Intrinsic Value of Adult Education. Through cluster analysis, five types of individuals were differentiated according to their relative scores on the three attitude factors. The typology provides evidence of the utility of the identified factors as a means to enhance understanding of the attitudes of different groups in the adult population.