Results

Here you can find selected results of the WiSel II project. Here you will find the complete list of all publications and presentations.

 

General or vocational education: Determinants of the decision at the end of compulsory school in Switzerland?

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In Neuenschwander, Fräulin, Schumann and Jüttler (2018), based on the expectancy-value-model, the question was examined whether achievement expectations from parents and teachers and students’ achievement in German and Mathematics in primary school predict their educational pathways (Gymnasium vs vocational education) in upper secondary education. The longitudinal sample consisted of 290 students from 5th and 9th grade. Stepwise logistic regression analyses and mediation analyses showed that students’ academic achievement as well as achievement expectations of parents and teachers in the subjects German and Mathematics predicted the educational pathway after compulsory education. The direct effect of academic achievement was partially mediated by the subject-specific achievement expectations. Findings were conclusively discussed with regard to the role of achievement expectations of parents and teachers in an early educational context and were contrasted with the meritocratic pretension principle.

 

Jüttler, Schumann, Neuenschwander and Hofmann (2020) investigated the role of vocational interests, as structured by the six-dimensional RIASEC model by Holland (1997), in the transition process from lower to higher secondary education. Authors examined the impact of vocational interests on the choice of baccalaureate school (BAC, general track), vocational education and training (VET, vocational track) or the federal vocational baccalaureate (FVB), a hybrid qualification that links elements of both tracks. The sample consisted of 609 students at the end of lower secondary school in Switzerland. The results of multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that all six dimensions of Holland’s interest model are significant predictors for the three post-compulsory tracks, even when controlling for school variables (e.g., grades) and variables of social origin. While the realistic and social dimensions were positively interrelated with the choice of VET, the artistic, investigative and enterprising dimensions predicted the choice of BAC. The conventional dimension was the only one positively linked to the choice of FVB. The results were discussed with special attention to the segregation between more practical and more theoretical types of interests.

 

 

The realization of professional desires in VET: Determinants and consequences for career counseling

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In Neuenschwander, Hofmann, Jüttler, and Schumann (2018), the research question was investigated to what extent adolescents’ desired professional environment is realized in their chosen apprenticeship two years later and how this realization can be predicted. Embedded in the Swiss context with its strong vocational training system, authors predicted effects of role models’ professions as well as practical internship experiences on the choice of a professional environment independent of professional interests. Hypotheses were tested using a longitudinal sample consisting of 348 adolescents in seventh and ninth grade. Logistic regression analyses showed that role models’ professional environments and the professional environment of the first internship influenced the realization of the desired professional environment at the end of lower secondary school, independent of the effect of adolescents’ interests. Authors concluded that career counselling should include role models’ professions and how they correspond with adolescents’ interests and professional desires. Moreover, role models, especially parents, were encouraged to reflect on how their goals influence adolescents’ career choice processes.

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