Browsing by Subject "alakouluvalinta"

This study focused on school choice. School choice refers to a policy that allows families to choose school for their children. In Finland, school choice usually means a choice between a general class and a class with special emphasis. The research question of this study was: What predicts choosing a class with special emphasis in elementary school? Previous studies have shown that a child’s school choice is correlated with especially mother’s level of education and child’s school grades. Choosing a class with special emphasis is more common among children whose mothers have higher education and among children who have received better school grades. Also, choosing a class with special emphasis seems to be more common among children whose fathers have higher education and among families with higher income level. The research data consisted of Learning to Learn Assessment Data gathered by Centre of Educational Assessment during the years 2007, 2010 and 2013. Logistic regression analysis was used to find predictive factors. Variables sex, mother’s level of education, father’s level of education, teacher’s evaluation of inventive abilities and teacher’s evaluation of working skills were considered as potential predictive factors. Results showed that teacher’s higher evaluation of pupil’s inventive abilities and mother’s higher level of education predicted choosing a class with special emphasis. These variables predicted 7–8 percent of the choice. In addition, the results showed that choosing a class with special emphasis was more common among children whose fathers had higher education. Furthermore, girls attended a class with special emphasis statistically more than boys. Teacher’s evaluation of working skills was not correlated with choosing a class with special emphasis. In addition, the results showed that if we examine the group of children in a class with special emphasis and the group of children in a general class, the children in the class with special emphasis have clearly more often highly educated parents than the children in general class. The results of this study provide more information about choosing a class with special emphasis in elementary school. In general, research information about school choices can be utilized when planning education policies and decisions.