Faculty of Education - Theses

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Subject: Australia × Start date: 1960 × End date: 1979 × Type: Masters Coursework thesis × Author: Elliott, Russell Henry ×

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    An investigation of some educational implications of Holland's theory of vocational choice
    Elliott, Russell Henry ( 1976)
    The project set out to investigate the value of Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (V.P.I.) as a measure of tertiary course/student compatibility and whether this compatibility had a bearing on subsequent course achievement. The sample consisted of 230 first year students at the Gordon Institute of Technology - a vocationally oriented College of Advanced Education. In addition to the course guidance investigation, a number of aspects of Holland's theory of vocational choice were examined. These included a test of Holland's proposed hexagonal pattern of relationships between the six personality types used in the interpretation of V.P.I. scores. Also, Holland's theory predicts, in relation to educational behaviour, that the choice of, stability in, satisfaction with and achievement into a field of study depend upon the degree of congruence between students and their educational environment. With a questionnaire measure of satisfaction and G.P.A. as an academic achievement measure, these predictions were tested. The results of a multiple discriminant analysis of scale scores on the V.P.I. indicated that meaningful distinctions between the course groups in the sample could be made on the- basis of scores on three significant discriminant functions. A series of planned contrasts carried out using a multivariance analysis also yielded significant results - again indicating that distinctions could be made between the course groups -using scores on the V.P.I. The values for the mean intercorrelations between scale scores for the sample showed that Holland's hexagonal ordering of the personality types was consistent with the results for this sample. As regards the congruence and satisfaction prediction, no significant differences were found on the satisfaction measures between those students who were congruent with their course and those who were not. Similar non-significant differences were found for the congruence/incongruence and academic achievement results. In both cases, however, satisfaction and achievement scores were higher for those who were congruent i.e. the differences were in the predicted direction. In -summary, the project found the V.P.I. to be able to discriminate between students in different courses and thus to offer possibilities for course guidance, and weak but not significant support for Holland's predictions relating to the effect of congruence of students and courses on educational behaviour.