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Overconfidence of vocational education students when entering higher education

Mark P. Bowden (Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
Subhash Abhayawansa (Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)
John Bahtsevanoglou (Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia)

Education + Training

ISSN: 0040-0912

Article publication date: 11 May 2015

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Abstract

Purpose

There is evidence that students who attend Technical and Further Education (TAFE) prior to entering higher education underperform in their first year of study. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of self-efficacy in understanding the performance of students who completed TAFE in the previous year in a first year subject of microeconomics in a dual sector university in Melbourne, Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilises data collected by surveys of 151 students.

Findings

A student’s self-efficacy is positively associated with their marks in a first year subject of microeconomics. However, the relationship between final marks and self-efficacy is negative for those students who attended TAFE in the previous year suggesting that they suffer from the problem of overconfidence. When holding self-efficacy constant, using econometric techniques, TAFE attendance is found to be positively related to final marks.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are exploratory (based on a small sample) and lead to a need to conduct cross institutional studies.

Practical implications

The research points to the need for early interventions so that TAFE students perform well in their first year of higher education. It also points to potential issues in the development of Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) programs.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the inter-related impact of attendance at TAFE in the previous year and self-efficacy on the subsequent academic performance of TAFE students.

Keywords

Citation

Bowden, M.P., Abhayawansa, S. and Bahtsevanoglou, J. (2015), "Overconfidence of vocational education students when entering higher education", Education + Training, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 429-447. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-02-2014-0012

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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