Texas Adult Education Standards Project (TAESP)
Focus Group Interview Findings

by
Lesley Tomaszewski, Don Seaman, Chia-Yin Chen, and Elaine Demps

FINDINGS

As mentioned in the Method section, the focus group interviews (the adult learners and the adult education practitioners) were coded separately. This coding lead to two sets of findings, one for the adult learners and the other for the adult education practitioners.

Adult Learners

The findings for the adult learners were categorized into: (1) reasons to participate in an adult education program, (2) characteristics of successful life, and (3) learners’ needs.

1. Reasons to participate in an adult education program

When the adult learners were asked why they decided to participate in an adult education program, their responses fell into four categories: (1) wanting employment, (2) earning a GED, (3) increasing their self-esteem, and (4) returning to school for their children.

• Wanting employment: Under this category, the adult learners discussed that they enrolled in the program because they knew they needed to further their education to apply for a better paying or to be promoted to better paying position at their place of employment.

GED student: I enrolled here to get better employment because I’ve only worked in fast food places. I’d rather work in something better.

• Earning a GED: Earning a GED was very important to most of the adult learners, whether they were enrolled in an ESL, ABE or ASE/GED class.

ESL student: Pues todavía no sé. Primero quiero sacar el GED y ya después pensar qué.

Translation: Well, right now I still don’t know. First, I want to get my GED and then later I’ll think of something.

• Increasing their self-esteem: Enrolling in the adult education programs to get a GED or a job were not the only reasons. Adult learners also discussed how going back to school and working towards a GED had increased their self-esteem. Most of the adult learners interviewed had quit school early and never received a high school diploma. By returning to school and working towards earning a GED some of them stated they had increased self-esteem.

GED student: My home upbringing, it wasn’t as well as it should have been and I didn’t have a whole lot of self-esteem to finish school. When I didn’t want to come to school, I didn’t have to come to school… But now, since I’m here, I feel better about myself… So my self-esteem is higher than it was.

• Returning to school for their children: The adult learners who were parents discussed that a major reason they returned to school was for their children. They either wanted to help their school-aged children with their homework or their adult children were encouraging them to go back to school and earn a GED.

GED student: I dropped from 8th grade and I got married and since my two boys, they graduated already. Now they tell me mommy you need to go back to school. So that’s why I’m back and to get my GED. So they can be proud of their mother.

2. Characteristics of successful life

The adult learners used a variety of characteristics when discussing what they thought was needed to be a successful community member, family member, and worker. The characteristics of successful life were grouped into three main categories: (1) knowledge, (2) attitudes, and (3) skills.

• Knowledge: Knowledge is the fact of knowing something learned through experience or association. Having knowledge increases one’s awareness, understanding, and problem-solving ability (Bennett, 1975). Through the course of the qualitative analysis, there were two types of knowledge were categorized: (1) academic knowledge and (2) life knowledge.

Academic Knowledge : This knowledge was the adult learners’ ability to apply what they were taught in their adult education classes to their lives.

Interviewer: You help your uncle with construction. Do you think that the math you were learning, helped a lot?

GED student: It helped a lot. Degrees, work on the angles. Measurement. All those.

Life Knowledge : Some adult learners described how they were lacking “book smarts”, but they had “common sense” or “street smarts”. This common sense/street smarts was categorized as Life Knowledge, because they had learned from experiences that had occurred during their lives.

ABE student: I had common sense but I didn't have book sense, and there's a difference. You know, I always had common sense.

• Attitudes: Attitudes are preferences individuals have towards or away from things, events, or people. Attitudes may change slowly overtime, but they are not as permanent as personality traits (Bennett, 1975). There were two distinct types of attitudes discussed by the adult learners: (1) attitudes towards self and (2) attitudes towards others.

Attitudes towards self : When discussing attitudes towards self, the students spoke about their increased self-confidence, increased self-esteem, being optimistic about future, and feeling motivated.

GED student: You have to be dedicated and you have to want it. But in life there are all obstacles. Some kids, husband and wife, whatever, car, transportation, money, gas. You know they’re obstacles, but if once you come in here. You’ll learn the routine as how it works. Maybe the first month, it doesn’t work for you but the second month you balance things out and you’re in here and yeah. And you get all that confidence and you get teachers behind you and you’ll learn from it. And you’ll want to do it and you’re going want to do it.

Attitudes towards others: When discussing attitudes towards others, the students spoke about their feelings of pride for their children, support for their community, and concern for others welfare.

ABE student: Helping people, rich or poor, it’s a good benefit for those that need help. You can go anywhere and help anybody, nursing homes, food catering, food delivery for seniors, whatever it is, helping your neighbor out.

• Skills: Skills are the mental and physical tasks performed. To be skilled, individuals must thoroughly understand the task and have the verbal or physical abilities to accomplish the task (Bennett, 1975). The skills described by the adult learners to be successful included: (1) academic, (2) interpersonal, (3) workforce, and (4) parenting skills.

Academic skills: Academic skills included reading, writing, mathematics, health, social studies and science.

GED student: I want to learn more math because my husband can do it in his head. He can’t show me how to do it on paper, so I want to be able to do it in my head, too. And it’s really hard.

Interpersonal skills: The interpersonal skills included communicating with others, problem solving, and helping others (family and/or community members).

ABE student: Well volunteering is great, but getting to know the people, get to know your neighbor early, and get to know your schools, teachers, PTA meetings. You can help them as well because they need your help also.

Workforce skills: The workforce skills were very similar to what might have been categorized as life skills, however the adult learners discussed these skills in context of work. The skills that fell under this category included team work, job readiness, and technology (mainly computer skills)

GED student: I dropped out of school because I got sidetracked, but I want to get back to my education for reasons for my job. And I intend to have a career as a chef and as a client you have to have computer skills. You have to and that’s the reason for me to continue.

Parenting skills: Not all of the adult learners were parents. However, most of the adult learners discussed that successful parents were active in their children’s lives, were role-models for children, and encouraged their children academically.

ABE student: That’s, being peaceful at home with your children and showing them as they’re growing up, they need volunteer work that comes up or anything at school or community service of any kind.

3. Learners’ needs

The adult learners discussed several things that they needed during the course of the focus group interviews. These needs were grouped into 5 categories: the students needed to have (1) comfortable learning environments, (2) support networks, (3) teachers, and (4) better paying jobs.

• Comfortable learning environments: Many of the adult learners discussed how they needed to feel comfortable to be able to learn. Most of them compared the feeling of comfort that they felt in the adult education program to that of the discomfort they felt while attending high school.

ABE student: I’m more comfortable here than in high school. There was too much pressure and too many things going wrong. If you fell behind, they just passed me because they wanted to. Here, you take your pace. If you don’t know how to do it, you ask questions, they help. That’s what’s good about it. They have the time and they take time to teach you the right way. They don’t try to push out the door, ‘Well, I don’t have time for you’. Everybody learns at their own pace, yet they all learn at the same time. I enjoy it, I really do.

• Support networks: The support networks that the instructors created in the classroom helped the adult learners feel more comfortable, but also gave them the assurance that they were being supported. Adult learners also mentioned family members being supportive of their participation in the adult education program.

ESL student: It is a bit different the education here then where I from. So far I learn different words everyday I come over here. That’s why I enjoy mostly my teacher because she always there with me, supporting. No just me, for everybody.

• Teachers: When asked about what the adult learners had learned from their programs, they could not stop speaking about how great their teachers were.

GED student: She always like to encourage everybody whose feeling down to left up their spirit. To not, to not get de-motivated, but get motivated.

ABE student: She made everything so simple and beautiful and I was thinking I never had this before with any other teacher. The other teachers I had never explained themselves to make me understand.

• Better paying jobs: Even though many of the adult learners interviewed were not employed at the time of the interview, many of them said the reason they were in the adult education class was to get a better paying job.

GED student: The reason I want to get my GED is because here is real low in employment and I wanted to get one of the high paying jobs here. It’s a good town, but I just wanted a better paying job.

Adult Practitioners

The findings for the adult education practitioners were broken into: (1) characteristics of successful life, (2) perceived learners’ needs, (3) program needs, and (4) standards.

1. Characteristics of successful life

The adult education practitioners used a variety of characteristics when describing what they thought adult learners needed to be a successful community members, family members and workers. The characteristics of successful life were grouped into three main categories: (1) knowledge, (2) attitudes, and (3) skills.

• Knowledge: Unlike the adult learners, the adult education practitioners discussed only one type of knowledge that was a characteristic of successful life for their students: academic knowledge.

Academic Knowledge: Academic knowledge was the knowledge that the students took from their classes and applied to their lives. Examples of this knowledge included using writing skills to write a letter to their employer or completing a time sheet using math skills.

A lot of times we even do a mock interview, that I’ll give assigned students something to do, they’ve got to apply for this job... an activity where we put them in situations.

• Attitudes: Unlike the adult learners, the adult practitioners discussed only one type of attitudes: attitudes towards self.

Attitudes towards self: When discussing attitudes towards self, the practitioners’ spoke of adult learners’ increased self-confidence, self-esteem and positive attitude by participating in adult education programs.

I put my ESL students on computer right off when we start classes twice a week. And most of them have, don’t have computer at home and don’t know anything about the computer. Within a week to two weeks, they can go on by themselves, they can find the program they are working on, and you just see the confidence building in them.

• Skills: The skills the adult education practitioners perceived adult learners needing for a successful life were similar to the ones mentioned by the adult learners. These skills included: (1) academic, (2) interpersonal, (3) workforce, and (4) critical thinking.

Academic skills: Academic skills included reading, writing, and mathematics.

The basic academic skills: decimals, fractions, percents, and all the geometry that they need. And the algebra.

Interpersonal skills: The interpersonal skills included communicating with others, time-management, organizational skills, problem solving, and goal setting.

What we cover in our orientation is about commitment… establishing realistic goals for one selves and committing to those goals. When is it okay to give up on a goal? That you’re not a failure because you didn’t achieve a gold letter. You might have to redirect, you have to be flexible.

Workforce skills: The adult education practitioners, like the adult learners, discussed life skills in the context of the work environment, so these codes were categorized under workforce skills. These skills included team work skills, job-readiness, multi-tasking, and technology (mainly computer skills)

We want them to learn team work. We want them to learn the social skills that they need when they go into the work place because of all the students that come back to us saying that they gotten fired, it’s not learning, it’s not learning all the basics.

Critical thinking skills: Critical thinking is the logical thinking and reasoning whereby individuals are able to interpret and evaluate information (Bloom, 1956). Critical thinking skills adult education practitioners discussed included thinking independently, analyzing policies, reading and listening critically, being able to compare and contrast, and recognizing contradictions.

I also want our students to walk away with better critical thinking skills. I think if you can read and then analyze and understand what you’ve read and then can be able to communicate that to someone, it helps you do the other things, like be able to communicate either with the written word or the spoken word.

2. Perceived learners’ need:

Adult education practitioners mentioned several needs that they perceived adult learners in their programs lacked. These needs were grouped into 5 categories: the students needed to have (1) basic needs met, (2) support networks, (3) jobs, (4) a GED, and (5) post-secondary education.

• Basic needs met: Many of the practitioners mentioned that adult learners needed basic needs -such as transportation, child care, money, and shelter- met before they completed an adult education program.

There’s a point at which they can't respond well to curriculum and to things until some of those basic needs have been taken care of.

• Support networks: Some adult education practitioners believed that their more successful students, students who were able to complete the program, had a support network made up of family and friends.

Another thing that I’ve seen that helps students a great deal is a support system. They can have all this motivation and all these plans and all these desires but if they get no support at home or at church or in school. They need a complete support system.

• Jobs: Even though most of the adult learners in adult education programs were not employed, adult education practitioners stated that they needed jobs. The adult education practitioners explained that without a GED and limited job skills, a lot of the adult learners would not be able to apply for jobs.

A lot of the students that don’t have a high school diploma yet or GED are relying on lower-end jobs. And many of them are femoral, they jump from one to another. And when they get a chance for something better, they jump at it. And as a result of that, in many cases, some of the students are not able to finish the month.

• A GED: The adult education practitioners believed that adult learners needed to earn their GED, because many of the adult learners did not have a high school diploma. Having a GED meant that they could apply for more jobs and for post-secondary education, such as trade school, community college, or university.

The students see their need for a GED or some kind of high school completion for employment or for higher education and a few of them just come because they just want to they feel a personal need for high school completion.

• Post-secondary education: Some adult education practitioners felt that after their adult learners earned their GED they could enroll in post-secondary education. Obtaining a GED was not the last degree adult learners would pursue. The different forms of post-secondary education included training schools, community colleges, and universities.

We do a lot of things that have already been mentioned, we have the representative from the community that represents all of the colleges, that will frequent our class, at least once a month, and she makes available information on scholarships and whatever programs they have that might be of interest to the students.

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