Mind The Gap: Students Intentions And Actions In School To Work Transitions
Author(s):
Sylvia Rahn (presenting / submitting) Christoph Fuhrmann (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Format:
Paper

Session Information

02 SES 08 B, Transitions: Teachers' Learning at Work

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-10
09:00-10:30
Room:
324. [Main]
Chair:
Vibe Aarkrog
Discussant:
Lars Heinemann

Contribution

In the international and interdisciplinary research on school-to-work-transitions student´s trajectories have been discussed as a matter of decisions and planned behavior and European adolescents think of themselves as responsible actors of their careers as well (Baumert/Maaz/Trautwein 2009; Neuenschwander/Garrett 2008; Altinyelken 2012). Therefore, models developed from expectation-value-theories as well as the related theory of planned behavior (Ajzen/Fishbein 1977, 1980) are widely-used in educational research in order to understand vocational orientation processes and to predict educational transitions. Expectation-value-theories as well as the theory of planned behavior have successfully proven themselves in a whole bunch of studies analyzing transitions from compulsory schools to higher secondary schools and from higher secondary schools to higher education or to the vocational education system (Baumert/Maaz/Trautwein 2009; Friberg 2014; Watermann/Maaz 2010; Winther/Ney 2008).

If trajectories from compulsory schools to lower vocational schools and from lower vocational secondary school to another vocational secondary school can be understood as a result of planned behavior as well is less certain. Especially in the context of vocational education systems with strong apprenticeship systems from school-to-school sequences have been perceived as compromises, which students have to make, if their chances on the market for vocational training are rather low (Birkelbach 2007). Although participation in the “transition system” – so to speak – in the German vocational education system or in “interim solutions” provided in the swiss educational system are controversial (Münk/Rützel/Schmidt 2008; Neuenschwander et al. 2010, p. 106ff.; Schmidt 2011) and have been proven as risks in vocational biographies by research on VET (Beicht/Friedrich/Ulrich 2008), students don`t seem to be aware of it. In accordance to longitudinal studies, students think about visiting schools in the German “transition system” as an opportunity for increasing their vocational chances by achieving a higher grade or a grade at all (Rahn/Brüggemann/Hartkopf 2014; Gaupp/Lex/Reißig 2008). Hence, students do not believe that the investment of one or two years of their lifetime in visiting a lower secondary vocational school will be a failure, even if those schools do not award a whole occupational qualification.

Thus it will be discussed in the presentation, how far trajectories within the vocational education system – starting from lower vocational schools – can be understood as results of planned behavior, too. It will be argued in three steps,

  1. if a model developed from the theory of planned behavior can explain the transitional intentions of students of lower vocational schools
  2. what students actually do to realize their intentions
  3. how important students intentions on the one hand and students actions on the other hand are for their statistical chances to get an apprenticeship after leaving lower vocational schools.

Method

The presentation will highlight some results of a current regional panel study, which inquires the vocational orientations and transitions of German students in lower vocational schools. The argumentation can be based on a sample of nearly 900 students from courses in the German “transition system”, who answered a standardized questionnaire twice, at the beginning and a few weeks before they ended the courses. The rate of response was remarkably good – and the panel-quota amounts nearly 73%. The questionnaire included among questions to student’s characteristics (gender, age, social background, cultural resources, educational biography etc.) scales which operationalize the model of planned behavior (attitudes to vocational schools and the apprenticeship system, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and transitional intentions). The reliability of the scales is satisfying. Moreover students have been asked what their vocational aspirations are, what they do to get an apprenticeship and what are their reasons, if they do nothing at all. In addition to the panel-data from the standardized survey, qualitative data from 20 face to face and 14 group-interviews are available which deliver some vivid impressions what students think about their current situation, their perspectives in life and how they use the learning time school offers. To answer the first research question mentioned above, two path-models developed from the theory of planned behavior, one with the intention to get an apprenticeship and one with the intention to visit school further as endogenous variable, will be tested in order to show if they fit with the empirical data. Secondly some descriptive results from the quantitative as well as from the qualitative data will be delivered to illustrate what students do and not do, to realize their plan to get an apprenticeship. Thirdly the results of logistic regression analysis will be presented in order to show how far students’ characteristics, their intentions to discharge into training or another vocational class, and their actions to realize their intentions can explain the next station, they eventually reach in their young vocational biography.

Expected Outcomes

Up to the current state of data analysis even the trajectories from students of lower vocational schools in the context of a vocational education system with a strong apprenticeship tradition can be basically explained as planned behavior in the framework of Ajzen and Fishbein. But it might be necessary to overthink the role of self-efficacy believes in the model. Furthermore: Although intentions and plans of students have some prognostic value for the explanation of the transition process the results of regression analysis as well as qualitative data indicate that the meaning of timing and effort in the process of job application might be more relevant for successful transitions from school to work and deserve closer attention, both in research as well as in the practice of vocational orientation and guidance. Adolescents especially socially disadvantaged, who are overrepresented in lower vocational secondary schools, might have reasonable intentions and plans for their vocational education and lives but often lack – in accordance to our data at least – the right timing and do not regulate their actions effectively. So we should mind the gap between the intention students may have in their processes of vocational orientation and transition and the actions which are necessary but not sufficient to make them real. Therefore the presentation starts with the meaning of intention and ends with the relevance of regulating actions in order to support students’ trajectories and transitions effectively.

References

Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1977). Attitude - behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 888-918. Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Altinyelken, H., Aro, M., Boron, F., Demozzi, S., Julkunen, I., Mellottee, L., Robertson, S., Taddia, F. & Treptow, R. (2012): Coping and Support in Educational Transitions. Work package No 8. University of Helsinki, University of Amsterdam. Online: http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goete.eu%2Fbackissues%2Fdoc_download%2F52-thematic-report-on-coping-and-support&ei=05LLVOrNJ4HBUpqUhOAM&usg=AFQjCNFWChf9DL38qaZ6N1fsJQldvrRjTA&sig2=XLQLvRNzqbFMymEM5xN7kA&bvm=bv.84607526,d.d24&cad=rja [30.01.2015]. Baumert, J., Maaz, K. & Trautwein, U. (2009). Genese sozialer Ungleichheit im institutionellen Kontext der Schule: Wo entsteht und vergrößert sich soziale Ungleichheit? Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, Sonderheft 12, 11-46. Beicht, U., Friedrich, M. & Ulrich, J. G. (2008). Ausbildungschancen und Verbleib von Schulabsolventen Bielefeld: Bertelsmann. Birkelbach, K. (2007). Schule als Notlösung. Die Entwicklung der Entscheidung zwischen einer Berufsausbildung und einem weiteren Schulbesuch im Verlauf des letzten Schuljahres der Sekundarstufe I bei Haupt-, Real-, und Gesamtschülern. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 103, 248-263. Friberg, K. (2014). Apprenticeship orientation as planned behavior in educational choices: a path model of antecedent beliefs. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training – online, 6, 1-7. Online: http://www.ervet-journal.com/content/6/1/7 [20.07.2014]. Gaupp, N., Lex, T. & Reißig, B. (2008). (Um-)Wege von Jugendlichen von der Hauptschule in die Berufsausbildung. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, 37(3), 24-28. Münk, D., Rützel, J. & Schmidt, C. (Hrsg.) (2010). Labyrinth Übergangssystem. Forschungserträge und Entwicklungsperspektiven der Benachteiligtenförderung zwischen Schule, Ausbildung, Arbeit und Beruf. Bonn: Pahl-Rugenstein. Neunenschwander, M. & Garrett, J. (2008): Causes and Consequences of Unexpected Educational Transitions in Switzerland. Journal of Social Issues, 64(1), 41-58. Neuenschwader, M., Frey, M., Gerber-Schenk, M., Rottermann, B. (2010). Übergang von der Schule in den Beruf im Kanton Zürich: Herausforderungen und Erfolgsfaktoren. Zürich: Pädagogische Hochschule der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz. Rahn, S., Brüggemann, T. & Hartkopf, E. (2014). Das Berufsorientierungspanel (BOP). Abschlussbericht zur regionalen Paneluntersuchung „Berufsorientierungs- und Übergangsprozesse Jugendlicher im Rhein-Erft-Kreis“. Münster: ecotransfer-Verlag. Schmidt, C. (2011). Krisensymptom Übergangssystem. Die nachlassende soziale Inklusionsfähigkeit beruflicher Bildung. Bielefeld: Bertelsmann Verlag. Waterman, R. & Maaz, K. (2010). Soziale Herkunft und Hochschulzugang. Eine Überprüfung der Theorie des geplanten Verhaltens. „Schulische Lernangelegenheiten und Kompetenzentwicklung“. Münster: Waxmann. Winther, E. & Ney, S. (2008). Abitur und dann? Ausbildungs- und Studienwahl vor dem Hintergrund sozialer Disparitäten. Wirtschaft & Erziehung, 60(10), 328-339.

Author Information

Sylvia Rahn (presenting / submitting)
University of Wuppertal (Germany)
School of Education
Wuppertal
Christoph Fuhrmann (presenting)
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Institut für Bildungsforschung in der School of Education
Solingen

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