Educational trajectory and ?action orientation?: Grade and track differences

Abstract

A life-span developmental perspective suggests that variations in social context will lead to differences among individuals in their "action orientations." An action orientation is defined by an individual's values, control beliefs, goal orientation, and decision-making perspective. To investigate differences in the action orientations of adolescents embedded in different contexts, 83 sophomore and senior high school students on either a vocational training or college-preparatory trajectory participated in the study. A discriminant function analysis of action orientations showed that the action orientations of vocational training and college-preparatory students differed: College-preparatory students had a "career preparation" action orientation and vocational students had an "adult preparation" action orientation; also, sophomores may have had a "socializing" orientation. The findings are discussed in terms of the developmental tasks facing students in different grades and on different life-course trajectories.

Adolescent goal content and pursuit: A review of the literature from the past 16 years

“…Following either an academic versus vocational education will largely determine the opportunities for further education and employment, which may translate into differing hopes, fears and expectations for the future. Supporting this notion, adolescents following a vocational education have been shown to report a greater number of adult preparatory goals (e.g., independence from parents, getting a job and starting a family) and fewer career preparatory goals (e.g., continuing in education, being successful, establishing a career) compared to those following an academic education (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991).…”

“…With regards to treatment of data generated by open goal-elicitation procedures, goals are commonly either divided into categories based on the content generated (e.g., Knox, Funk, Elliott & Bush, 2000) or divided into pre-defined categories often based on earlier studies (e.g., Klaczynski & Reese, 1991). Some studies divided goals into 'approach' versus 'avoidance' regardless of content area (e.g., Dickson & MacLeod, 2004a).…”

“…Educational track has also been found to be related to expectations of success, self-efficacy and control beliefs over one's future (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991;Malmberg & Trempała, 1997). Adolescents following a vocational education are suggested to be more likely to attribute negative educational goal outcomes to themselves while college-preparatory students are more likely to attribute positive educational goal outcomes to themselves (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991).…”

“…Adolescents following a vocational education are suggested to be more likely to attribute negative educational goal outcomes to themselves while college-preparatory students are more likely to attribute positive educational goal outcomes to themselves (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991). There is some contradictory evidence regarding expectations for goal success, with one study finding these predictions to be higher in college-preparatory students (Malmberg & Trempała, 1997) while another finds them to be higher in vocational students (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991). As would be expected, adolescents following a vocational education (and thus often required to fulfill fewer years of secondary school) have a shorter temporal extension when considering educational and occupational goals than those following an academic secondary education (Malmberg & Trempała, 1997).…”

Self‐generated goals and goal process appraisals: Relationships with sociodemographic factors and well‐being

“…Vocational students also anticipate achieving these goals earlier than general-secondary school students (Malmberg & Trempa1a, 1997). Further, evidence is mixed with regards to expectations of goal success and educational track (Klaczynski & Reese, 1991;Malmberg & Trempa1a, 1997). Although the literature on this area is scarce (Massey et al, in press), the evidence available suggests that differential formation of goals may be associated with educational track.…”