The present study examined the relation between study progress in the first year of education and different aspects of the process of study choice of 89 students of higher professional education. This study consists of three parts. Firstly, we explored which concepts are important in open interviews concerning choice of study and study progress. Secondly, we examined the relations between future time perspective and motivation on the one hand and study success on the other hand. Students who focus on the here and now generally continued their studies while students focusing on the future and the ulterior profession, presenting an extended future time perspective, drop out more frequently. Intrinsic motivation is strongly related to positive study progress, and extrinsic controlled motivation is strongly related to dropout. Extrinsic autonomous motivation is in between. Furthermore, students’ attitudes towards their future studies were examined in relation to their study progress. The results show that students with an attitude characterized by doubt have the highest risk to drop out. Finally, comparing different orientation programs, we show that students who prepare themselves more intensively before making their choice show less dropout.
Daily practice shows that choosing a higher professional education is not easy for secondary school students. Universities offer try-out classes, open days, and summer schools to help prospective students to make a good choice. The main focus of these activities is to enable students to start their education with more realistic expectations. However, despite these efforts, dropout in the first year of higher education is very high [
Which topics emerged frequently in the interviews? Is it possible to assign classifications for these issues that students reported spontaneously?
The participants in this study were 89 students of the Inholland University of Applied Sciences (higher professional education), from the studies of law and Social Legal Services. The age range was between 17 and 25 years. The participants were randomly selected from a group of 300 students, and the group consisted of 24 men and 65 women. This ratio is representative for the students in the studies of law and Social Legal Services. During an information session two months before the start of the study year, nearly 100 participants were asked to participate.
For this study we used the half-open interviews that were administered as part of the Groningen Identity Development Scale, the GIDS [
Over a time period of one year, a comparable half-open interview was administered three times with six months in between. The first interview was shortly before the student started the chosen education, and the last interview was after the end of the first year of education. The participants were interviewed by the first author, in a quiet room. Each interview lasted about 20 minutes. Interviews were administered three times. The interview data were coded and analyzed step by step according to the Grounded Theory approach [
Firstly, we observed that almost all students spontaneously talked about their future. Their discussions of the motives to choose this study referred to different time perspectives. By time perspective we mean the time-span of the perception of the student. They either focused on the present and proximal situation of their education or focused on the professional future further away and particularly on job characteristics. Especially in the first interview students reported whether they had chosen this study focusing on a future job. A considerable group indicated the future job as being the main reason for their educational choice (i.e.,
Finally, a third issue that emerged in almost all interviews was the attitude of students towards the study of their choice. Students reported about their expectations and attitudes to make this particular choice. Some students talked about the attractive and positive characteristics of the study of their choice and were very positive about what they expected to learn in their studies or what they expected to become later on. Others seemed to make a choice based on negative argumentation: the other options had more disadvantages (i.e.,
The interview data showed that many students seem to have made a choice with the intention to continue their studies after one year at university to get the Master of Law degree (LL.M), because they hope to get a legal robed profession. The Dutch educational system offers the possibility of following a sequence of studies with an increasing level (a Dutch university of applied sciences (higher professional education) prepares for a Bachelor degree of applied sciences; a Dutch university prepares for a Bachelor degree and after that for a Master degree, necessary for a legal robed profession). However, in this group the focus on the robed professions seems very frequent and salient, and this finding led us to analyze the group with an intention to continue at the university in more detail. We defined this phenomenon as “perspective to switch to university.”
Based on our findings of the explorative-qualitative research, we made the following qualifications. The classification of time perspectives resulted in two categories: short-term time perspective and long-term time perspective. The criteria used for the coding were the following: Participants were coded with a short-term (ST) time perspective if, in the discussion of educational choice, [s]he focused on the here and now of the studies: the attractiveness and contents of the topics and the education. Participants were coded with a long-term (LT) time perspective if the participant, in the discussion of educational choice, focused on a future professional career and on possible jobs opportunities after education. In the School of Law, students typically focused on the so-called legal robed professions such as lawyer and judge.
Interrater agreement was 91%, after discussion, adjustment of the coding directions, and a second round of coding.
We distinguished between three categories of utterances concerning motivation: intrinsic, extrinsic autonomous, and extrinsic controlled utterances. The criteria used for the coding were the following: Participants’ utterances were coded “intrinsic” if they described their study choice as a goal in itself; the motivation to learn legal topics was a motivation that came from within. Participants’ utterances were coded “extrinsic autonomous” if they explained their study choice as based on material or other rewards, thus as an external goal, but when they also expressed volition and free choice. Participants’ utterances were coded “extrinsic controlled” if they explained their study choice as based on material of other rewards, thus as an external goal, and they expressed a sense of pressure or obligation. These participants expressed no genuine interest in the studies.
Interrater agreement was 100%, after discussion, adjustment of the coding directions and a second round of coding.
For attitude we distinguished between a positive, a negative and an ambivalent attitude. The criteria used for the coding were the following: Participants were coded with a positive attitude when he or she expressed confidence and optimism with regard to his or her choice, the contents and characteristics of the studies, and the personal experience of the studies. Participants were coded with a negative attitude when (s)he described the choice for the study in negative terms: it was second choice or the choice was based on negative arguments or the choice was motivated by lack of other options. Participants were coded with an ambivalent attitude when doubt was expressed with regard to the choice of study or their capacity to succeed in this study. A part of the codes was independently rated by the first and the second author.
The interrater reliability of attitude was computed by calculating the rate of agreement, corrected for chance. After discussion and adjustment of the coding directions the two coders agreed upon the codes for eight out of ten interviews. The disagreements were found to be based on subtleties that could not be caught by sharpening of the code directions.
Participants were classified into six various groups according to the preparation they followed (or did not follow) for preparing the study choice. Each group contained approximately 15 students. The participants prepared themselves before making their educational choice in different ways. We classified these preparatory programs in two ways: a differentiated and a more global way. We did so because, for some analyses, the differentiated classification resulted in many very small or even empty cells. However, if possible, we used the differentiated classification, in which we distinguished six groups on the basis of the type of preparation of their educational choice.
These groups were not completely mutually exclusive. In case they could be classified in more than one group, they were classified in the group with the most intensive preparation.
The global classification distinguished four groups, in which participants were classified with regard to the intensity of the preparation. We formed three preparation groups: “no preparation” (group WO of the differentiated classification), “preparation of some days” (MH and OR), and “preparation of two weeks” (LS). A fourth group is “former experience” (PK), and this group consisted of participants who did not follow a formal preparation but who had knowledge of the studies because they did comparable lower level studies before. Participants classified as FE group belonged to PK group if their previous study was also law-oriented and to WO if their previous study was not law-oriented.
The concepts time perspective, motivation, and attitude have been found relevant on the basis of what students reported in the interviews. Apparently these themes are important in the process of educational choice. Time perspective was categorized in two classifications: short-term time perspective and long-term time perspective. We distinguished between three motivational categories with regard to the utterances about educational choice: intrinsically motivated, extrinsically autonomously motivated, and extrinsically controlled motivated categories. For the concept attitude, we distinguished between the categories positive, negative, and doubtful. For all codes intercoder reliability was satisfying. In the next section, we will discuss literature on career counseling theories and research on (vocational) identity development in which these three concepts are related to career choice processes.
However, identity theories as discussed by Bosma and Kunnen [
From the perspective of Frijda’s emotion theory [
Thus, different theories predict a different relation between time perspective and motivation and different implications for educational success. Because of this seeming contradiction, the complexity of the different concepts, and the lack of empirical knowledge about their relations, we chose to investigate the relation between time perspective and educational success in an open, explorative way. Furthermore, we formulated hypotheses based on the literature concerning the relation between study success and motivation and attitude. We expect that there is a positive relation between autonomous forms of motivation and study success, and we expect to associate a positive attitude with study success. A special question will be addressed to the phenomenon that we defined as “ambition to switch to university.”
What is the relation between time perspective and educational success, in terms of persistence or dropout? What is the role of the phenomenon defined as “perspective to switch to university”?
We expect that autonomous forms of motivation are related to better learning outcomes. We expect that a positive attitude is related to better learning outcomes.
We used Chi-square analysis to test the relation between study success, on the one hand, and time perspective, motivation, and attitude on the other hand. In addition, to test the significance of the differences between each of the categories in case we had too many small or empty cells, we used resampling (Monte Carlo) techniques. These techniques are particularly suited for small and unevenly distributed samples. Resampling techniques start from the assumption that differences between two categories or groups are the consequence of a random distribution. As a next step we tested, by repeated shuffling of the data, how often the empirically found difference between two categories or groups is found by random reshuffling.
Table
Difference in time perspective between persisters and dropouts (
Study success | Time perspective | ||
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Short-term | Long-term | | |
Persisters | 34 (68%) | 16 (32%) | 50 (100%) |
Dropouts | 4 (17%) | 19 (83%) | 23 (100%) |
Total | 38 | 35 | 73 |
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Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
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Pearson Chi-square | 16.167 | 1 | 0.00 |
Table
Table
Quotes about time perspective in the higher education choice process.
Time perspective | Interview | Quotes |
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ST | 2 | ( |
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ST | 1 | ( |
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ST | 2 | ( |
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ST | 1 | ( |
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ST | 2 | ( |
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LT | 1 | ( |
2 | ( | |
3 | ( | |
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LT | 2 | ( |
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LT | 1 | ( |
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LT | 1 | ( |
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LT | 2 | ( |
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LT | 1 | ( |
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LT | 1 | ( |
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LT | 2 | ( |
In the short-term (ST) utterances, the future was clearly not perceived relevant. Even if it was mentioned, for example, quote 5 of participant OR6, the future perspective did not contribute to the study choice. We see that when interest in law topics was mentioned, the quotes remained very global. Common terms are “interesting” or “I like it.” The long-term utterances mainly mentioned future jobs like becoming a judge or a lawyer. Interesting is that those jobs cannot be achieved by studying law at a school for higher professional education; to reach those goals, students have to switch to the university (A Dutch university of applied sciences (higher professional education) prepares for a Bachelor degree of applied sciences; a Dutch university prepares for a Bachelor degree and after that for a Master degree, necessary for a legal robed profession.). Several long-term quotes reflected an almost blind choice for these studies; the goal of students with a long-term time perspective was to continue their studies at the general university. In the next section, we will come back to this “University Study Perspective.” In some long-term quotes we clearly see that important others played a role in the educational choice (quotes 14, 15, and 16). In quote 6 it is demonstrated that the time perspective may change over time: this person started with a rather short-term time perspective but changed to a long-term time perspective in later interviews. This long-term time perspective resulted in a decision to quit the studies.
We decided to explore the frequently reported perspective to switch to the university and analyzed whether this intention is related to the educational success. As a first step we applied a Chi-square analysis to test whether there were significant relations, and next we analyzed the interviews to get a better understanding of the intention to continue the studies at university. Table
The relation between study success and the intention to switch to the university (
Study success | University Study Perspective | ||
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No ambition | Ambition | | |
Persisters | 38 (59%) | 26 (41%) | 64 (100%) |
Dropouts | 17 (68%) | 8 (32%) | 25 (100%) |
Total | 55 | 34 | 89 |
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Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
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Pearson Chi-square | 0.566 | 1 | 0.452 |
With regard to the intention to switch to the university, there was no significant difference between persisters and dropouts. Also, during the interviews, the intention to continue at university was often mentioned. Sometimes it was described as a long existing dream for the future; other students described this intention in relation to the higher status of the jobs that can be reached by having a university degree. Some students found out that their dream jobs were not within reach during their present studies at higher professional education. Table
Examples of quotes expressing the intention to switch to the university, with references to the status and to long existing dreams.
Prestige of the occupation/social status | Future dream |
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(about the profession/the future) “That you have to do preparatory work for someone else. Whereas I want to be the one who signs the papers…” (2LS2-P 3) | “When I was in the last class of primary education I already thought: it would be nice to become a judge or a lawyer later on” (MH9-P3) |
| |
“But then I was ‘just a paralegal’ during my internship, I was only allowed to do simple things” (PK51-P1) | “I have known for a very long time that this is what I want to |
“I chose Law because I had wanted this for a very long time, how does law work” (1LS-P20) | |
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“I already work at a law firm…. They’re not kind, and they look down on you” (FE6-P2) | “I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time. I’ve wanted this |
Table
The relation between type of motivation and study success.
Study success | Motivation | |||
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Intrinsic | Extrinsic autonomous | Extrinsic controlled | | |
Persisters | 45 (87%) | 19 (61.0%) | 0 (0.0 %) | 64 |
Dropouts | 7 (13%) | 12 (39%) | 6 (100%) | 25 |
Total | 52 (100%) | 31 (100%) | 6 (100%) | 89 |
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Value | Df | Asymp. Sig. (1-sided) | ||
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Resampling Average and significance | 0.13 | 0.42 | 0.0001 |
Because we did not meet the Chi-square requirements concerning cell size and because we wanted to test each pair of categories separately, we did additional analyses using resampling techniques. We assessed the chance that the differences between the three categories were caused by random distribution. Persisters got value 0, dropouts got value 1, and we computed the average value (thus the rate between persisters and dropouts) for each motivation category. Outcomes that differed significantly (
Table
Examples of quotes representative for different forms of motivation.
Motivation | Persister/dropout | |
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IN | Persister | “To me it seems like a very nice education. It seems interesting to me. Just that, learning about Law” (SM25) |
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IN | Persister | “I think the social part is important in an education. That is the reason why I chose Social Legal Services. I like all subjects, especially “an introduction to law”, but also the social subjects” (MH23) |
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IN | Persister | “I like to figure out, explore things. That seems interesting to me” (2JS13) |
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EA | Persister | “I used to want to become a lawyer, because I really liked this. And I watched interesting series and so on. Then my mother said; why not studying Law? Then I thought this was a good idea” (SZ45) |
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EA | Persister | “At first I wanted to do something arty, like the film academy. Then I realized I did not want to choose a study without any job possibilities. In that case, I prefer a job at the office which interests me. I spoke about it with my mother, who is a judge” (SZ13) |
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EA | Persister | “First I wanted to study psychology of applied sciences, but this was all the way in Amsterdam. I chose not to do this, too far away. Finding a place to live in Amsterdam can be very difficult. Then I visited the open days of the Law School for Applied Sciences and I thought: this really appeals to me” (2JS1) |
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EC | Dropout | “I live together now with my boyfriend, so I’m looking at the future. My boyfriend is older than I am, and we want children. So, I should finish the first year first, and then quit, so we can have a child. I should also see whether I’m able to succeed at all, and see whether it’s not too hard” (FE5) |
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EC | Dropout | “In the first place, I chose the school. After that, the education. I prefer a large school with a lot of windows over a little one with only one floor or so. Because, yes, I have claustrophobia, so I feel safer over here than in another school” (SV47) |
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EC | Dropout | “In the beginning I did not want to continue my studies, I wanted to work. I had bad experiences with the organization at my former school. Then my mother said: you don’t know what it’s going to be like at a new school, maybe it’s different, you are so young, why not continue studying…. I did not visit open days because I did not want to continue my studies. I first needed to change my mindset” (SV14) |
In these analyses 78 students were included as eleven students could not be classified with regard to their attitude. Table
Differences in attitude between persisters and dropouts (
Study success | Attitude | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Positive | Negative | Doubt | | |
Persisters | 46 (82%) | 7 (58%) | 3 (30%) | 56 |
Dropouts | 10 (18%) | 5 (42%) | 7 (70%) | 22 |
Total | 56 (100%) | 12 (100%) | 10 (100%) | 78 |
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Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (1-sided) | ||
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Pearson Chi-square | 12.661 | 2 | 0.001 |
To gain more insight into these outcomes we analyzed the quotes in the interviews that underlie the positive, negative, and ambivalent attitudes. These quotes, at the end of Table
Quotes that are illustrative for different attitudes.
Attitude | Persister or dropout | Quote |
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Positive | Persister | ( |
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Positive | Persister | ( |
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Positive | Persister | ( |
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Negative | Dropout | ( |
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Negative | Persister | ( |
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Negative | Persister | ( |
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Negative | Persister | ( |
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Negative | Dropout | ( |
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Doubting | Dropout | ( |
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Doubting | Persister | ( |
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Doubting | Dropout | ( |
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Doubting | Dropout | ( |
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Doubting | Dropout | ( |
Students with a long-term time perspective were found to drop out more often (question 3).
Nevertheless, no difference was found between the intention to switch to the university and study success (question 4). We found that educational success is positively related to intrinsic and extrinsic autonomous motivation; hypothesis 1 was confirmed. Furthermore, extrinsic controlled motivation only occurred among the dropouts. Not surprisingly, we found a strong positive relation between choosing a study out of a positive attitude and continuation of the study; hypothesis 2 was confirmed. More than half of the students who started with an ambivalent attitude became a dropout. Furthermore, the quotes suggest that the quality of the ambivalence may differ between persisters and dropouts. Some students - quotes 10, 11 and 12 - doubted their capacities to succeed in their studies, while others -quotes 13 and 14- doubted the rightness of their choice, and whether or not the study fitted them well.
In this third section we investigated how the intensity of preparation before making an educational choice is related to the time perspective. Furthermore, we explored whether there was relation between the ambition to switch to the university and the intensity of the preparation before the start of the study. Finally, we examined the relation between these different types of preparation that were followed by the students, and their study success.
Study preparation programs may help prospect students to make them aware of proximal topics such as the contents of subjects, but also offer a realistic image of the more distal issues such as the professional context or the future profession. In the interviews students discussed the information they had about the studies, and the exploration process prior to the choice. Students develop their image of a study during the process of making an educational choice. Because of the high dropout rates, universities offer students elaborate orientation activities and intensive programs to support students in this process. Inholland University of Applied Sciences offers different types of orientation activities and preparatory programs. In previous studies it was found that students who attend an organized preparation often are more successful in their studies than students who do not attend such a preparation, and they start their studies with a more realistic image [
Do students with more intensive preparation have another time perspective than students with less preparation? Is there a relationship between the ambition to switch to the university and the type of preparation program or orientation activities that student followed? We addressed these two questions as open questions. Furthermore, based on the research discussed above, we hypothesize that more intensive preparation is positively related to study success.
Table
The relation between time perspective and intensity of preparation (
Intensity of preparation | Time Perspective | ||
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Short-term time perspective | Long-term time perspective | | |
Two weeks | 14 (78%) | 4 (22%) | 18 (100%) |
Some days | 14 (61%) | 9 (39%) | 23 (100%) |
Former experience | 7 (47%) | 8 (53%) | 15 (100%) |
No preparation | 3 (18%) | 14 (82%) | 17 (100%) |
Total | 38 | 35 | 73 |
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Value | Df | Sign. (2-sided) | |
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Resampling average level of preparation | 2.02 | 1.09 | 0.014 |
A significant difference between the preparation groups was found. The group with the most intensive preparation most often had a short-term time perspective, while the group who started their studies without any preparation or knowledge at all often had a long-term time perspective. Again, in Table
For the analysis of the intention to continue at university and the different types of preparation before choosing the studies, it was possible to choose for the more differentiated classification, given the cell sizes. Table
The relation between the intention to switch to the university and the types of preparation (
| University Study Perspective | ||
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No ambition | Ambition | | |
LS | 8 (40%) | 12 (60%) | 20 (100%) |
FE | 8 (73%) | 3 (27%) | 11 (100%) |
MH | 11 (100%) | 0 (0%) | 11 (100%) |
OR | 10 (53%) | 9 (47%) | 19 (100%) |
PK | 9 (69%) | 4 (31%) | 13 (100%) |
WO | 9 (60%) | 6 (40%) | 15 (100%) |
Total | 55 | 34 | 89 |
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Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (2-sided) | |
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Pearson Chi-square | 12.383 | 5 | 0.03 |
Group FE: students who switch to the Law School in the winter semester, so-called February students, who generally have followed another higher education course in the first semester.
Group MH, Mbo-Hbo trajectory: two days especially for graduates from senior secondary vocational education (MBO).
Group OR, preparation: different short preparations such as open day, “one day a student,” or a combination.
Group PK, prior knowledge: students who did not prepare by organized activities but their knowledge is based on previous studies (at a lower level or at a different university).
Group WO, without: students started without any official, organized preparation.
The Law Summer School (LS) group contained a majority of students who aimed to continue at university, and no students from the Preparation for Secondary Vocational Education graduates, meaning group (MH), showed that intention. This result is a bit surprising when we relate it to our earlier findings above, which stated that a long-term time perspective is related to dropout chances. In the previous section we found out that dropouts predominantly have a long-term time perspective, while the ambition to continue at university does not differentiate between students who continue or dropout. However, when we consider the group with the most intensive preparation, the Summer School group, we see that this group shows the intention to continue at university most frequently, and at the same time, often have a short-term time perspective. This seems counterintuitive. How can these students choose a study while focusing on the here and now, the proximate focus, and at the same time intend to continue at university, which sounds like a long-term time perspective? To get a better understanding of this discrepancy, we analyzed the interviews in detail. Table
Quotes that illustrate the developing ambition throughout the academic year to switch to the university versus participants wishing to switch to the university from the very beginning of the academic year.
Persister/dropout | Interv | Time Persp | Quote regarding stepping over to university after one year |
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Persister | 3 | ST | ( |
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Persister | 3 | ST | ( |
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Persister | 3 | ST | ( |
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Persister | 2 | ST | ( |
3 | ( | ||
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Persister | 1 | ST | ( |
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Dropout | 1 | LT | ( |
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Dropout | 1 | LT | ( |
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Dropout | 1 | LT | ( |
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Dropout | 1 | LT | ( |
These quotes suggest that the intention to switch to the university in the groups with an intensive preparation, the Law Summer School (LS codes) group and also the Short Preparation, group OR, developed throughout the year. The quotes of the dropouts from groups with less preparation show that their intention to go to university was already mentioned in the first interview, but seemed to be almost “blind”, without arguments or knowledge about the studies.
We investigated the relationship between educational success and preparation, and we used the more global classification in four groups. Table
Study success following different preparatory programs of different intensity (
Study success | Preparation | ||||
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Two-week | Some days | Former experience | No preparation | | |
Persisters | 18 (90%) | 22 (76%) | 12 (63%) | 12 (63%) | 64 |
Dropouts | 2 (10%) | 7 (24%) | 9 (37%) | 7 (37%) | 25 |
Total | 20 (100%) | 29 (100%) | 21 (100%) | 19 (100%) | 89 |
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Value | df | Asymp. Sig. (1-sided) | |||
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Pearson Chi-square | 6.452 | 3 | 0.046 |
We found a significant (
We found that participants who followed a more intensive form of preparation more often gave reasons for their choice that could be classified as short-term time perspective (question 5).
We found significant differences concerning the intention to continue at university in the preparation groups: the Summer School group had the intention to continue at university somewhat more often than the other groups (question 6). The interviews gave a more detailed view, revealing that especially the Law Summer School (LS) and the Short Preparation (OR) groups seemed to develop their university ambition throughout the year. They started with a focus on proximal characteristics such as the contents of the study, and gradually developed a longer-term time perspective throughout the year, in which they formulated the intention to continue their studies at university. The intention to continue at university in the other groups seemed to be a more abstract view of a future far ahead. The interviews were very clear at this point; in almost all interviews this was a general theme, except from the group with graduates from senior secondary vocational education (The complete data set (in Dutch) is available on demand, please contact the corresponding author.).
The hypothesis concerning the relation between the type of preparation is also confirmed: the groups with the most intensive preparation activity drop out less frequently than those without preparation.
Our findings concerning time perspective and the students’ motivation and attitudes towards and preparation on their studies provide some insight into the way in which these concepts relate to study success in the first year. Students with a long-term time perspective were defined as students who based their choice on later job possibilities; students with a short-term time perspective focused on the contents and characteristics of the studies. Dropouts were found to be almost always students with a long-term time perspective. Dropouts seemed to be ambitious at the beginning, because they often indicated that they aimed to continue their education at university. Our results, especially the quotes of these students, suggest that their choice may not be well-informed. Some students were categorized with “ambition to switch to university”; they had a rather abstract idea, sometimes based upon a long existing dream for the future, of both the university and the legal robed professions that they aimed for.
In line with the initial findings on motivation [
Furthermore, utterances of the students in this study showed that having an extended future time perspective is associated with a strong drive. This finding is in line with the studies discussed in the theoretical framework [
All in all, we recapitulate our results of the relation between study success on the one hand and future time perspective and motivation on the other hand as follows. Extrinsic autonomous motivation can be just as meaningful as intrinsic motivation when it comes to persistence. In the interviews students with an extended future time perspective showed a strong drive, but no evidence was found for the relation between long-term future time perspective and more study success. Students who followed a two-week Summer School as preparation (the LS group) made their choice based on the characteristics of the study. During the first year they developed an intention to continue their law studies at university, and this emerging long-term time perspective is not related to dropout.
Not surprisingly, students’ attitudes regarding educational choice were especially positive for students who successfully continued their education. Less expected is that more than 50% of students who started their studies with a “negative” attitude still continued successfully. A more surprising finding is that an ambivalent attitude turns out to be related to dropout more strongly than a “negative” attitude. Apparently a second choice or a choice based on the least unattractive option (those where the criteria for a negative attitude) can result in a positive educational success, while that happens less in case of doubt. Our findings showed that students who showed doubt have the highest risk to dropout. In the interviews quotes we distinguished between doubt based on uncertainty about one’s own competence and doubt based on uncertainty about whether one has made the right choice of study. These findings are in line with the research of Germeijs et al. who showed that indecisiveness forms a risk factor for coping with career decisional tasks [
Students who followed more intensive types of preparation gave short-term reasons for their choice more often. An explanation for this finding may be that in the preparation they were provided with detailed information about the study. Although this should be tested in additional research, it is possible that, for students who found this information attractive, it became an important reason for their choice, while students who found the information not attractive may have decided to choose another study.
Our hypothesis that more intensive preparation before making an educational choice would be related to study success was confirmed. The group with the most intensive preparation showed the least dropout. The group of students who did not follow any preparation showed the highest dropout levels. The “prior knowledge” group did not follow any organized preparation, but these students had knowledge of the studies based on previous experience. This is a more complicated and probably vulnerable group. On the one hand, they did follow some type of law education, so they had some knowledge of these types of studies. On the other hand, either these students dropped out because of their previous similar level law studies at another institute or they followed a more vocational and less difficult law related study.
Our findings are relevant for the educational institutions. First of all, they suggest that intensive preparation programs may help students to start their studies with a more complete image and with more realistic expectations. Secondly, we found that a too strong focus on later jobs, before but also after the start of the studies, may not be optimal. This seems to be counterintuitive for institutions of higher professional education, considering that they are offering programs which are primarily practice oriented. Nonetheless, for career choice preparation programs, it seems to be more important to focus on the characteristics of the studies, and it is less desirable to attract students with descriptions of specific later jobs. Educational programs should adapt the vocational part of their curriculum to a focus on professional context or job related tasks instead of a focus on the “job itself.” Finally, institutions should pay special attention to students characterized by indecisiveness and doubts. Although more evidence is needed to ensure whether the risk for dropout with such students is valid for other groups as well, this finding may be relevant for the guidance of first-year students, not only during their intake sessions but also during their coaching programs. Personal coaching in order to address doubts may strengthen the students’ trust in their choice and foster their educational success.
We should be careful, however, with the generalization of these findings to studies and students in general. This study focused on students of one specific educational trajectory in one city in Netherlands. In some of our analyses we found very strong and convincing relations, for example, the finding that almost all dropouts had a long-term perspective. Our research shows that the distinction between a short-term future time perspective and a long-term future time perspective is too vague. There are extended future time perspectives that are not realistic and not made on the basis of the contents of the studies. On the other hand, there are long-term future time perspectives that are developed throughout the first year, rooted in knowledge about the contents of the studies and their possibilities. These results have implications for future research: one should consider the precise goals and the target group before associating an extended future time perspective and success.
Relevant processes and factors (such as the focus on legal robed professions) in this study may be very specific for this specific type of education. We think that one of the lessons of this study can be that if we want to understand what really happens in educational choice and the later educational success and dropout, we should focus on one specific group in detail, instead of trying to find a broad and general sample in which all specific processes disappear in the average numbers. In that way, we may grasp the processes, instead of finding relations that are statistically significant but explain only a small part of the variance and that are not really helpful in designing career choice projects and educational guidance. Naturally, a collection of such specific studies may help us to gain insight into general processes and mechanisms and to draw general conclusions for present and future career choice information and guidance, as well as for the organization of higher professional education.
The authors declare that there are no competing interests regarding the publication of this paper.