Motivational dynamics in mandatory training and transfer situations: The case of driving-drinking offenders.

Jacot, Anne [UCL] Raemdonck, Isabel [UCL] Frenay, Mariane [UCL]

In a context of labour market instability, continuing professional education is becoming ever more important in employees and jobseekers’ professional career (Conter, Maroy & Urger, 1999). Companies and welfare programmes offer a large amount of education to individuals. In some cases, the participation may be mandatory. In Belgium, unemployed people can neither refuse an adequate job nor an offered training while about 25% of employees do not enroll in training of their own initiative (Conter, Maroy, Orianne, 2003). However, the researchers agree to point out that the answer to this question ‘Do I want to do the course?’ is determinant for the learners’ engagement in learning tasks (Eccles, 2006). Therefore, we would like to understand the goals that these individuals strive for, the impact of these goals on their motivation and the situational factors which can influence their motivation and indirectly the training transfer. The training effectiveness is a crucial issue. We use the framework of expectancy-value models (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002) to explore theses issues. Specifically, our research aims to investigate whether adult learners’ motivation and engagement increase over time in a context of a mandatory training enrollment and under which circumstances. One explanation could be found in teaching practices. We aim also at comparing the motivational profiles of employees and jobseekers. The research is on its preliminary stages. The theoretical framework and the methodology of intended research design will be presented.