Implication of Gender and Perception of Self-Competence on Educational Aspiration among Graduates in Taiwan

1. Implication of Gender and Perception of Self-Competence on Educational Aspiration among Graduates in Taiwan Wan-Chen Hsuand Chia- Hsun Chiang Presenter :Wan-Chen Hsu

2. Outline • Introduction • Method • Results • Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Achievement aspiration applications in education, known as the "educational aspiration", it means that individuals subjective assessment of their own abilities and the hope to achieve something, for example in the pursuit of degree. Educational aspiration is an important social and psychological variables, as educational aspirations will affect the future of education and occupational status achieved.

4. Introduction • Participation in higher education is a key concern of the Taiwan society. In recent years, the percentage of high school graduates to enter universities for study has close to 100%. After graduation, to pursue further studies is the individual freedom of choice.

5. Introduction • Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investing the influence of gender, perception self-competence on the educational aspirations of a sample of graduates. Specifically, the following research questions were addressed in this study: 1.What are the gender differences in graduates’ perception self-competence? 2.What are the gender differences in graduates’ educational aspirations? 3.What are the corrections among perception self-competence and educational aspirations? 4.Can gender and perception self-competence predict educational aspirations？

6. Method • Samples Taiwan Higher Education Data System and Its Applications, this project is a three-year project and collect data using mailed questionnaire, Internet questionnaire. In this study, we select samples and the total samples were 11,812 graduates from 157 higher education schools. All of the samples, 5,068 (43%) were male and 6,744 (57%) were female.

7. Method • Variables and instruments According to the purpose of this study, select the appropriate data including "gender", "self-competence", and "educational aspirations" to analyze, the variables measured as follows: (1)Gender We used dummy variable with male 1and female 0 to conduct discriminate analysis.

8. Method (2) Self-competence The self-competence scale which respondents evaluated one question "How do you think your ability in the following areas" respect to 16 items as follows: "Art", "Computer science", "Leadership", "Chinese writing", "Sport", "Oral presentation", "Interpersonal skills", "Creativity", "English listening and speaking," "English reading", "Mathematical logic", "Analysis", "Critical thinking“ etc, Each item used 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1to 5(1=Very poor, 5= Very well).

9. Method (3) Educational aspirations In this study, we utilized a question "How about your further studies decision after graduation?" and 3 further study options includes "still in school", "plan for study”, "not plan for study."

10. Method • Analysis procedure (1)We conducted independent-sample t-test to understand the gender effect on perception of self-competence. (2)Test of homogeneity of proportions was utilized to understand the gender effect on educational aspirations and used adjusted standardized residual value (AR) to conduct posteriori comparisons.

11. Method (3)Multi-serial correlation was conducted to understand the correlations between perception of self-competence and educational aspirations. A significant correlation was followed by ANOVA to determine the direction of the two related variables. (4)We utilized discriminate analysis to understand if the gender and perception of self-competence of graduates predict educational aspirations.

12. Results • Perception of self-competence V.S Gender differences It showed mean and standard deviation of perception of self- competence by gender. There were genders difference in perception of self-competence (t= 14.98, p＜.05) and males had higher scores in perception of self-competence than did females.

13. Results • Educational aspirations V.S Gender differences There were gender differences in educational aspirations (χ2= 79.273, p<.001). We used adjusted standardized residual value (AR) to conduct posteriori comparisons. The results indicated that the AR value of male persons who still in school was 18.7, plan for study was –9.0, and not plan for study was -8.9. The absolute value of three AR value were higher than 2.58 and the results were significant. For males, it showed that the percentage of still in study was higher and plan for study, not plan for study were lower. Females opposite to males, it showed that the percentage of plan for study, not plan for study was higher and still in school was lower.

14. Results • The correlations among perception self-competence and Educational aspirations Multi-serial correlation value was .20 (P<.001). It showed that there were significant relationships between perception of self-competence and educational aspirations. We conducted one-way ANOVA to determine the direction of the two related variables. It indicated that one who get higher scores of perception self-competence, the more positive to take further study.

15. Results • Discriminate analysis between gender, perception self-competence, and Educational aspirations There were 2 discriminate function coefficients significant including function 1(Wilks’Λ=.934, p < .001) and function 2 (Wilks’Λ=.339, p < .001). In terms of standardized canonical discriminate function coefficients, function 1 was more closely related to perception of self-competence; function 2 was more closely related to gender.

16. Results Thus the discriminate function 1 primarily through perception self-competence to discriminate the different educational aspiration and discriminate function 1 primarily through gender to discriminate the different educational aspiration. In addition, from classification accuracy rate, the total prediction rate of 40.8% which was not powerful predictors.

17. Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • To pay more attention to gender equity and practice positively. According to “Gender Equity Education Act” of Taiwan, it should consider the following regulations :

18. Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • The school shall design curriculum and activities to encourage students to develop their potential and shall not discriminate students on the basis of their gender. • Elementary and junior high schools, in addition to integrating gender equity education into their curriculum, shall provide at least four hours of courses or activities on gender equity education each semester.

19. Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • Senior high schools shall integrate gender equity education in their curriculum, the same as the five-year junior colleges in the first three years of their curriculum. Universities and colleges shall offer a wide range of courses on gender studies. • Schools shall develop course planning and assessment methods in accordance to principles of gender equity education.

20. Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • The compilation, composition, review and selection of course materials shall comply with the principles of gender equity education. The content of teaching materials shall present fairly on the historical contributions, life experiences of both sexes, and diverse gender perspectives.

21. Implications for curriculum, teaching materials and instruction • When using teaching materials and engaging in educational activities, teachers shall maintain gender equity consciousness, eliminate gender stereotypes, and avoid gender prejudice and discrimination.Teachers shall encourage students to take courses in fields that are not traditionally affiliated with their gender.

22. Conclusion • The main purpose of this study was to investigate the implication of gender and perception of self-competence on educational aspiration among graduates. In this study, there were gender effects on perception self-competence and educational aspiration. Gender and perception self-competence can predict one’s educational aspiration but the predictive power was weak. Suggest for the further study, it can use different samples, a qualitative study to explore in depth the development of the individual's educational aspirations.

23. Thank you.