Vocational- Education Students' Attitudes towards Their Academic Specialization in Jordan

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify the attitudes of vocational education students at Al-Balqa Applied University towards enrollment in their academic specialization from their perception, relating them to variables such as gender, the student’s academic year, and academic rating. A descriptive approach was used with a questionnaire which comprised 33 items that measured the students' attitudes towards the vocational education specialization. The study comprised 221 male and female students to whom the questionnaire was distributed in the first semester of the academic year 2019-2020. The study found that the students' attitudes towards the vocational education specialization for the instrument as a whole were positive: 24 items obtained positive attitude scores and 9 items showed an average attitude. It was found that there were no statistically significant differences among vocational-education students’ attitudes towards their enrollment in their academic specialization in terms of the study variables: gender; the student’s academic year (first and second year, third and fourth year); or academic rating (acceptable, good, very good, and excellent). It was also found that there were no statistically significant differences among the vocational education students' attitudes towards their enrollment in their academic specialization. These differences are attributed to the study variables: gender, academic year, and academic rating. It is recommended that: the study plan should be developed to be more comprehensive, and incorporates a diversity of experiences, knowledge, and activities to achieve differentiation of the student's personality. This requires the university and the college to provide diverse and flexible activities to suit the characteristics of students in light of the principles of respecting, meeting and satisfying their inclinations and desires.