Selected Factors Affecting the Educational Activity of Adults

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show the importance of educational activity of adults in the process of intentional designing one’s life: flexible actions depending on the needs and overcoming the deficits. The life-long education and the learning competences are essential in today’s world, that is why a closer look was taken on educational activity of adults and to research their ability to perform a self-directed learning and diagnose their learning motivation. The problem was examined in the salutogenesis paradigm, which was first defined by Aaron Antonovsky. The key concept for Antonovsky’s concept is the sense of coherence (SOC), which is a constant disposition of personality in adult life and determines the way we think, interpret, and make decisions and actions in our lives. The sense of coherence is characterized by a dimensional character (from weak to strong SOC) and is defined as a global orientation expressed in the sense of individual certainty that its external and internal environment is understandable and meaningful and life is worth the effort and commitment (Antonovsky 1979, 1986; Antonovsky &Sagy 2001). The ability of self-directed learning was correlated with the level of sense of coherence. In this article the results of the research are presented. The research was conducted on 427 persons in Poland. The research was focused on finding different factors influencing educational activity of adults, especially on the most significant activity: self-directed learning. The dependence of chosen variables was examined, in order to point out the features which might help adults to initiate their own learning activity.