GION at the AERA 2022 annual meeting

At the AERA 2022 annual meeting, Marinda Spithoff and Monique Dijks will present findings from their research.

Paper presentation: Use of Information in Decision Making by School Boards. Marinda Spithoff; Gerry J. Reezigt; Roel J. Bosker. (Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina, North Building, Lobby Level, Presidio 1 & 2; Thursday, April 21 8.00 PDT/17.00 CEST)

A global trend is that decision-making in education becomes more and more decentralized. The Netherlands is an example of a strong decentralized educational system; school boards in the Netherlands are responsible for most aspects of education. Decisions that boards have to make, involve several internal stakeholders. By use of a policy simulation, we tried to gain insight into the involvement of stakeholders and the use of information in decision-making processes of school boards. Our results indicate that stakeholders are only incidentally involved in the decision-making process. Moreover, boards use only a small portion of the available information. Nevertheless, the participation of stakeholders and the use of information seem to be a predictor for the quality of the board’s policy.

Poster presentation: The Impact of Behavioral, Normative, and Control Beliefs on Students' Satisfaction With Their Educational Choice. Monique Dijks; Hanke Korpershoek, Matthijs Warrens; Roel J. Bosker. (San Diego Convention Center, Upper Level, Sails Pavillion; Friday, April 22 14.30 PDT/23.30 CEST)

Educational choices in secondary education should be carefully made, especially if they have far-reaching consequences for students’ future careers. Student satisfaction can be used to evaluate some educational choices. The current study aimed to predict secondary school students’ satisfaction with their study profile choice (i.e., one out of four combinations of subjects in upper secondary education) from behavioral, normative, and control beliefs, using structural equation modelling (N=183). The proposed model fitted well and explained a large part of the variance of satisfaction. Behavioral, normative, and control beliefs proved to be highly associated. Moreover, normative beliefs, and especially the expectations of friends contribute significantly to student satisfaction. These results suggest that considering friends’ opinions in educational choices increases students’ short-term satisfaction.