Making the Right Choice: Investigating the Factors Influencing Career Choices and Learning Preferences of Students at Higher Education
Keywords:
Career choices, Learning preferences, Higher Education, Thematic analysis, Qualitative study.Abstract
The study intends to explore the challenges of career choices and learning preferences of students in higher education. A qualitative research methodology was adopted to conduct this research. Convenient sampling technique was adopted to select the research sample from university students studying in the first semesters of BS programs. In total, fifty respondents were invited to participate in this research after obtaining their consent for interviews. A semi-structured type interview protocol was designed to collect data from the selected sample. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the interview transcripts. The findings identified the following key challenges of students which influenced the selection of the right field of study due to family and social pressures, high merit, lack of guidance from parents and teachers, and financial problems. As to learning preferences in higher education, respondents highlighted the following major challenges in their learning: their teachers are lacking advanced teaching methods, there is no alignment between teachers’ teaching style and students' learning style, students face pressure of performance from parents and teachers. Students also revealed that their teachers do not motivate their performance. Limitations and recommendations were also discussed.
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