Choices and changes: Eccles’ Expectancy-Value model and upper-secondary school students’ longitudinal reflections about their choice of a STEM education

ABSTRACT

During the past 30 years, Eccles’ comprehensive social-psychological Expectancy-Value Model of Motivated Behavioural Choices (EV-MBC model) has been proven suitable for studying educational choices related to Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Mathematics (STEM). The reflections of 15 students in their last year in upper-secondary school concerning their choice of tertiary education were examined using quantitative EV-MBC surveys and repeated qualitative interviews. This article presents the analyses of three cases in detail. The analytical focus was whether the factors indicated in the EV-MBC model could be used to detect significant changes in the students’ educational choice processes. An important finding was that the quantitative EV-MBC surveys and the qualitative interviews gave quite different results concerning the students’ considerations about the choice of tertiary education, and that significant changes in the students’ reflections were not captured by the factors of the EV-MBC model. This questions the validity of the EV-MBC surveys. Moreover, the quantitative factors from the EV-MBC model did not sufficiently explain students’ dynamical educational choice processes where students in parallel considered several different potential educational trajectories. We therefore call for further studies of the EV-MBC model's use in describing longitudinal choice processes and especially in investigating significant changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Expectancy-Value
• educational choice processes
• significant change

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Lars Brian Krogh for his analytical contribution and Fredrik Jensen for his valuable comments concerning the quantitative analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Eva Lykkegaard is a PhD in Science Education currently working at Centre for Health Science Education at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Her dissertation was a longitudinal study of STEM oriented upper secondary school students’ ongoing educational choice processes. Using mixed methods her research focused on critical moments in students’ choice processes, that changes their educational trajectories and in addition the students’ perceived match between scientists and science students and their own identities.

Lars Ulriksen is a Professor in sociology of science education at The Department of Science Education at The University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Research areas include the meeting of higher-education students with the culture and curriculum of the programs. He was the project leader of the Danish part of the IRIS project that studied students’ choice processes, their decision to choose or not to choose STEM and their transition into university.

Notes

1. With the expression ‘educational trajectory', we refer to the possible paths that students consider following after upper-secondary school. The trajectory involves applying for and entering a study programme and the reflections and considerations of the students about their educational trajectory deal with the pros and cons, the possibilities and consequences following a trajectory into a programme, and often comparisons to following the trajectory into another programme.

2. In Denmark, admission to higher education is offered based on the students’ grade-point average from upper-secondary school. If there are more applicants than study places offered, the students with the highest GPAs will be offered admission.

3. The item directs utility in the original model (Figure 1(a)), and in the modified model (Figure 1(c)) it is used as ‘job value’.