Session Information
99 ERC SES 05 H, Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Paper Session
Contribution
Reference-group effects are well-established within educational psychology. According to the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Effect (BFPLE) achievement-based school/class composition influences individuals’ academic self-evaluation. Controlling for individual achievement, higher group achievement is related to lower individual academic self-concept and vice versa (Fang et al., 2018).
Recently, efforts have been made to link the BFLPE to a variety of educational and occupational outcomes and to establish the long-term nature of these effects. Researchers found negative effects of average school achievement on educational/occupational aspirations (Nagengast & Marsh, 2012; Yuan & Olivos, 2023), expectations and attainment (Göllner et al., 2018; Marsh et al., 2023). In some studies, these effects have been found to persist multiple years after measuring group achievement (Göllner et al., 2018, Marsh, 1991; Marsh et al., 2023). However, research on the longevity of these effects remains scarce: Specifically, we only know of one study that examined the long-term BFLPE on aspirations (Marsh, 1991).
As aspirations have been shown to be a relevant precursor of attainment, increasing adolescents’ aspirations can have a significant positive effect on their life trajectories (Schoon & Polek, 2011). Hence, the first aim of our study is to analyse the effect of group achievement in secondary school on educational aspirations during tertiary education, i.e. two/four years later.
We decided to focus on a sample of students who start vocational education and training (VET) after school. VET students can profit strongly from an increase in their educational aspirations, as they are – compared to higher education graduates – disadvantaged in the labour market (Protsch & Solga, 2016).
Based on these considerations, we derive the following hypothesis:
H1: Holding constant for individual achievement, school average achievement in secondary school negatively affects students’ educational aspirations during VET.
Apart from that, examining a sample of VET students enables us to analyse how different reference-groups work together a) simultaneously and b) over time. While researchers acknowledge that in the school setting multiple reference-groups (e.g. classes and schools) influence educational outcomes simultaneously (Jansen et al., 2022; Yuan & Olivos, 2023; Zell & Alicke, 2009), it is unclear if this holds also true for the VET context. In the German VET system, students spend time in two separate learning contexts: VET classrooms and training firms. We suggest that both constitute relevant reference-groups. Therefore, the second aim of our study is to examine the BFLPE on educational aspirations in VET classes and training firms simultaneously. We assume the BFLPE to be stronger in VET classrooms than training firms due to the standardised nature of the school setting (Jansen et al., 2022).
H2: When controlling for individual achievement, a) VET classroom group achievement and b) VET firm group achievement negatively influence educational aspirations during VET.
H3: The BFLPE in the VET classroom is stronger than the BFLPE in the training firm.
While simultaneous reference-group effects have been researched in some detail, the effect of multiple reference-groups over time remains understudied. The recent focus on their long-term effects, however, calls for a further examination of these mechanisms. Therefore, the third aim of our study is to analyse how different reference-groups over time affect educational aspirations during VET. We believe that group achievement in secondary school still affects educational aspirations even after adding group achievement in VET classrooms and training firms as predictors. Furthermore, we argue that more recent reference-groups are more influential than less recent ones.
H4: The BFLPEs in secondary school remains after adding BFLPEs in the VET classroom and the training firm.
H5: The BFLPEs in a) the VET classrooms and b) the training firm are stronger than the BFLPE in secondary school.
Method
We used data from Starting Cohort 3 of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS-SC3, Blossfeld & Roßbach, 2019), specifically a subsample of adolescents who are in VET during waves 9 and/or 11 (N = 1715). These time points were chosen, as they provide data on achievement in VET schools/training firms as well as on educational aspirations. To measure achievement in the VET context, we use self-reports about VET students’ individual achievement in VET classrooms/training firms relative to their peers’ achievement in these contexts. These indicators enable us to examine the mechanisms behind the BFLPE: Previous research shows that the effects of individual and group achievement are driven mainly by such self-evaluations of one’s achievement position within the reference-group (Huguet et al., 2009; Wang & Bergin, 2017). Using these variables, BFLPEs are indicated by a positive effect sign. Educational aspirations during VET were coded dichotomously, indicating whether or not students aspire to complete higher education in their life. To measure the BFLPE in secondary school, we used data on group and individual achievement. We worked with weighted likelihood estimates (WLE) of a mathematics competency test conducted in grade 9. We calculated group achievement by averaging all individual scores over schools. This procedure is in line with previous BFLPE studies (Fleischmann et al., 2021). Furthermore, we included items for educational aspirations in grade 9, sex, age, socioeconomic status (individual and school average), wave (9 vs. 11) and migration background as covariates in the analyses; academic self-concept measures as well as educational aspirations in grade 9 were used to conduct robustness checks. We filled in missing information with multiply imputed data. To be able to calculate average school achievement and average school socioeconomic status, we conducted multiple imputation with a larger sample consisting of all students in the relevant secondary schools. After the calculation of school averages, we reduced the sample again to N = 1715 VET students. We calculated generalised linear mixed models with individuals at level 1 and schools at level 2. Models were built in a stepwise manner, starting with intercept-only models, then adding covariates and predictors separately. All models are random-intercept models and were calculated using R.
Expected Outcomes
Empirical support was found for hypotheses H2a, H3, H4 and H5a. We found when individual achievement relative to group achievement in the VET classroom – but not the training firm – is higher, the chance of aspiring higher education during VET is larger. These results are not only in line with the BFLPE but also show that VET classrooms might constitute more relevant frames of reference than training firms. Surprisingly, the effect of group achievement in secondary school on educational aspirations yields opposite results (H1), suggesting that higher group achievement leads to higher aspirations. In additional analyses we examined the effect of secondary school group achievement on educational aspirations and academic self-concept in grade 9. Negative effects were found on academic self-concept and positive effects were found on aspirations. In sum, these results suggest that the effect of secondary school group achievement might differ between outcome variables. A positive effect on educational aspirations (in secondary school and VET classrooms) hints at the so-called basking-in-the-reflected-glory-of-others-effect (BIRGE), which is another well-established reference-group effect in educational psychology. However, previous research has shown that the BIRGE is usually smaller than the BFLPE and can be extracted by controlling for group social status (which we did; Göllner et al., 2018; Marsh et al., 2023). Hence, further analyses need to shed light on these contradictions. Apart from that it remains unclear why secondary school and VET classroom effects have opposite directions. One explanation would be a self-report bias of the VET classroom measure. Another reason might be the comparison of secondary schools and VET classrooms, two different frames of reference. We aim to do further exploratory analyses to gain insight into these open questions. All in all, our study reveals the complex nature of reference-group effects over time and in contexts that include multiple learning environments.
References
Blossfeld, H.-P., & Roßbach, H.-G. (Eds.). (2019). Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Edition ZfE (2. Aufl.). Springer VS. Fang, J., Huang, X., Zhang, M., Huang, F., Li, Z., & Yuan, Q. (2018). The big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(AUG), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01569 Fleischmann, M., Becker, D., Weßling, K., Nagengast, B., & Trautwein, U. (n.d.). Living in the big pond: Adding the neighborhood as a frame-of-reference for academic self-concept Formation. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tnjra Göllner, R., Damian, Rodica Ioana, Nagengast, B., Roberts, B. W., & Trautwein, U. (2018). It’s not only who you are but who you are with: High School composition and individuals’ attainment over the life course. Psychological Science, 29(11), 1785 –1796. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618794454 Huguet, P., Dumas, F., Marsh, H., Régner, I., Wheeler, L., Suls, J., Seaton, M., & Nezlek, J. (2009). Clarifying the role of social comparison in the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE): An integrative study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015558 Jansen, M., Boda, Z., & Lorenz, G. (2022). Social comparison effects on academic self-concepts —Which peers matter most? Developmental Psychology, 58(8), 1541–1556. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001368 Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Dicke, T., Guo, J., Parker, P. D., & Basarkod, G. (2023). Disentangling the Long-Term Compositional Effects of School-Average Achievement and SES: a Substantive-Methodological Synergy. In Educational Psychology Review (Vol. 35, Issue 3). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09726-4 Nagengast, B., & Marsh, H. W. (2012). Big fish in little ponds aspire more: Mediation and cross-cultural generalizability of school-average ability effects on self-concept and career aspirations in science. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1033–1053. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027697 Protsch, P., & Solga, H. (2016). The social stratification of the German VET system. Journal of Education and Work, 29(6), 637–661. Schoon, I., & Polek, E. (2011). Teenage career aspirations and adult career attainment: The role of gender, social background and general cognitive ability. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(3), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025411398183 Wang, Z., & Bergin, D. A. (2017). Perceived relative standing and the big-fish-little-pond effect in 59 countries and regions: Analysis of TIMSS 2011 data. Learning and Individual Differences, 57(April), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.04.003 Yuan, X., & Olivos, F. (2023). Conformity or contrast? Simultaneous effect of grademates and classmates on students’ educational aspirations. Social Science Research, 114(June). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102908 Zell, E., & Alicke, M. D. (2009). Contextual neglect, self-evaluation, and the frog-pond effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(3), 467–482.
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