Factors Influencing Chinese College Students’ Major Switching from the Perspective of Social Cognitive Career Theory

By employing the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this paper made a qualitative inquiry into the factors influencing college students' decisions to switch their majors and their decision-making processes. Seventeen students (11 in the follow-up) who succeeded in switching their majors reported t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe education review, USA Vol. 8; no. 7; pp. 995 - 1001
Main Author Du, Xiaohong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elmhurst Hill Publishing Group Inc 12.08.2024
Subjects
Academic achievement
Career Development
Career development planning
College students
Colleges & universities
Data Analysis
Data collection
Decision making
Education policy
Employment
Higher education
Qualitative research
Questionnaires
Self-efficacy
China
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Summary:By employing the Social Cognitive Career Theory, this paper made a qualitative inquiry into the factors influencing college students' decisions to switch their majors and their decision-making processes. Seventeen students (11 in the follow-up) who succeeded in switching their majors reported their major-switching experiences through two-phase questionnaires. The first phase produced three major themes: employment prospects, academic interest, and self-efficacy encouragement. These themes involved five subthemes-positive employment prospects, career plan, interest in the major, academic performance, and parental modelling-that influence students' decisions to switch their majors. The second phase reconfirmed the crucial factor of employment prospects. Additionally, the study revealed that parents played a significant role in students' decision-making processes. This study provides valuable insights into students' decisions to switch majors, helping colleges better understand students' perceptions about major-switching, and consequently, colleges could play a more important role in guiding students in their decision-making processes and improving support systems to facilitate major switching.
ISSN:2575-7938
2575-7946
DOI:10.26855/er.2024.07.018