Dynamics in higher education choice: weighing one’s multiple interests in light of available programmes

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that students' interests are decisive in making a substantiated higher education choice, yet do not indicate how students decide which interests they aim to pursue. This study aimed to find the considerations students have when weighing interests and higher education programmes. Thematic analysis was applied to uncover considerations based on semi-structured interviews with 20 Dutch high-school seniors. Students weighed their interests from an interest-to-programme perspective (contrasting interests and deciding which is most important for their future) and from a programmeto-interest perspective (evaluating how possible programmes reconcile with one's interests). By applying both perspectives simultaneously, students dynamically considered which programmes and interests they wished to pursue. These findings imply that higher education choice theory and studies should acknowledge that the programmes and interests students consider are dependent on the feed forward of the considered interests on programmes and the feed back of considered programmes on interests.

The Multidimensional Structure of Interest

“…As a consequence, educators might do well to determine the baseline subject-related interests of their students, in order to judge the necessity of triggering new, situational interest, or the possibility of appealing to existing, individual interests. The same goes for out-of-school interests, which can be important for study choices and hold learning potential (Holmegaard, 2015;Ito et al, 2018;Vulperhorst, van der Rijst, & Akkerman, 2020). For example, research has shown that involving students' personal interests in school can improve homework completion rates, task interest and engagement (e.g., Hinton & Kern, 1999;Reber, Canning, & Harackiewicz, 2018).…”

“…Additionally, recent research has shown that also interests outside the school context can be catalysts for meaningful learning processes, with the potential to develop considerable knowledge and skills (Ito et al, 2018;Krapp, 2002;Renninger & Hidi, 2016). Moreover, out-of-school interests can be of equal value to students in making study and career choices, an interest in gaming for example leading a student to consider choosing Computer Science (Erstad & Silseth, 2019;Holmegaard, 2015, Vulperhorst, van der Rijst, & Akkerman, 2020. Recognition of the powerful role of out-of-school interests has also generated educational research on how to involve students' existing interests into education (e.g., Hinton & Kern, 1999;Reber, Canning, & Harackiewicz, 2018).…”

Relevance of Educational Research: An Ontological Conceptualization

“…Yet youth themselves may have other views about the positions they have or ought to have, with also other than academic and career motives that drive their actions (e.g., more pressing aims related to health, family, or religion). In fact, adolescents we have been following in this and other interest projects all reported to have multiple academic, leisure, and family interests they equally valued in making balanced study and career decisions (e.g., Vulperhorst et al, 2020).…”

Uno strumento per l’orientamento differenziale in professioni di confine: educatore, insegnante, assistente sociale, psicologo

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The choice of the university course to attend and therefore indirectly the professions connected to it, constitutes a complex operation for a student who finishes secondary school (Vulperhorst, 2020). This choice becomes more difficult if we are talking about courses of study that train border professions, as in the case of university courses in the socio-psycho-pedagogical field, assimilated, in the common feeling, to the point of confusing the borders.

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