Salmi, H. 2002.
Factors affecting students' choice of academic studies: the motivation created by informal learning. Survey at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre.
People do learn in informal settings, and most of the cognitive learning is related to meaningful facts and relevant skills. According to a recent survey relating to career choices among the first and the second year students at the University of Helsinki 79.8% of the students had visited Heureka Science Centre before they had started their studies at the tertiary academic level. The study (n=1019) was given to students in eight different university faculties in the year 2000. The data was collected as a part of a questionnaire which contained 25 items measuring different reasons of students career-choices.
Table 4.1: University students of different faculties visiting the science centre (%); (n=1019)
natural sciences 85.6%
technology 84.5%
medical science 79.1%
economics 77.6%
education 77.6%
humanities 78.3%
veterinary 68.1%
social science 85.2%
mean 79.8%
The highest attendance was among the students of natural science (85.6%), social science (85.2%) and technology (84.5%). The lowest attendance was among the students of the veterinary department (68.1%). This was the only difference that was statistically significant (P0.05) between these groups. The reason for the lower attendance is still unclear, and is a topic of further study.
The high percentage of attendance (compared internationally) in table 4.1, clearly shows the potential that a science centre has for the university as a motivational factor in creating positive attitudes towards science and research.
According to the preliminary analysis of the career-choice survey, informal learning sources seem to have a much stronger impact on academic career choices than has been recognised in earlier studies. However, these earlier studies focused on traditional survey criteria (family background, content of studies, social status, salary, etc.).
The results of the factor analysis indicate six different patterns for career choices:
1. interest in the content of study and future work,
2. interest in future work career, salary, and new positions,
3. social pressure of parents, relatives and peer groups,
4. the effect of career campaigns and school career advice, and work experiences from summertime or apprentice jobs,
5. a special course at school and a skilful, exceptional teacher, and,
6. own hobby, media and other informal sources.
The item related to the science centre visit was an essential part of factors 5 and 6. Students who cited their own hobbies and informal learning sources as a reason for their career choices also underlined the role of the science centre visit as an essential part of the reason for their choices of university studies. The same phenomenon - connection to a science centre visit - was also found in the group of students who named a special course at school and a good motivating teacher as a reason for their choice of higher academic study.
These results are also supported by earlier findings presented in literacy. The quality of the science teacher and extracurricular activities (such as science clubs, competitions and industrial visits) in science have also been found encouraging factors for career decisions [42].
The data also indicates some clear differences between the attitudes, aims and motivation of the students in different faculties of the university. The interest in the content of the work and studies was highest among the veterinary and medical science students. Most ?career-orientated? (salary, developing opportunities, etc.) students were found in the technical university and economics; the female students of these centres in particular strongly underlined these factors. Special courses, extracurricular activities, good teacher and science centre visits were clearly factors for the group of students in the faculty of natural science. These activities had been very important for the female students of this group. The difference from the male students of the natural science faculty, and with all the other faculties, was statistically significant (P0.05). Further analysis of these data will show more explicit connections, and create new hypotheses to be tested.
