This thesis presents a set of models of enrolment behaviour in senior secondary science courses in New South Wales (Australia) schools. The models have been developed out of concerns about declining enrolments and continued sex differences in enrolments in these courses. They use the framework of the Science enrolment Model (SEM), a framework which uses an expectancy/value approach to examine the relationships between the various influences and their combined effect on enrolment behaviour. The SEM was constructed by fitting the factors which have been shown to influence enrolment behaviour in the sciences to the structure of the General Model of Academic Choice, a model of achievement related behaviour developed by Eccles and colleagues. Models were constructed for enrolment behaviour in three specialist science courses; Biology, Chemistry and Physics and two non-specialist science courses; General Science and Science for Life. These five courses account for 97 percent of enrolments in senior secondary science in New South Wales. Measures of enrolment intentions were predicted by, measures of interest, perceived career value, TER value (value as a means gaining university entrance) and a combined measure of self-concept and performance expectations. These constructs were, in turn, predicted by measures of perceptions of parent and teacher attitudes, perceptions of past performance, attributions for past performance and personality measures. The enrolment models explained between 60% and 70% of the variance in enrolment intentions in the specialist science subjects. 'Career value' was found to be a major influence on enrolment behaviour in all five subjects. The expectancy and value variables explained approximately 80 percent of the sex difference in enrolment intentions in the specialist science subjects. Career considerations accounted for between 30 percent and 50 percent of this difference / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/240745 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Barnes, Geoffrey R., University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Faculty of Education and Languages |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_FEL_XXX_Barnes_G.xml |
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