The status and quality of vocational education and training (VET) represent a challenge in many countries, including Norway. In recent decades the political goal in Norway has been to ensure that vocational programmes at upper secondary level achieve equal status with academic programmes. Considerable efforts have been made to strengthen the…

I study the effects of early between-school ability tracking on student achievement, exploiting institutional differences between German federal states. In all states, about 40% of students transition to separate academic-track schools after comprehensive primary school. Depending on the state, the remaining student body is either directly tracked…

This study investigates neural activities of hospitality students when they are in practical and theoretical classes. This study involved 33 freshmen in a hospitality program, who underwent 420 minutes of brainwave data collection using an electroencephalographic (EEG) headset; 831,600 brainwave data points were gathered in seconds. The results…

In this study, we investigate how 2,216 Swedish upper secondary school students' performances of sourcing, evaluating evidence, and corroborating digital news relate to their background, educational orientation attitudes, and self-rated skills. We used a combined online survey and performance test to investigate students' abilities to evaluate…

Increasing the number of tertiary graduates has been a priority on the political agenda of the EU for some years. The focus has mainly been on academic courses though, with less emphasis on the role of vocational education and training. International educational statistics indeed show a clear increase in the number of persons completing tertiary…

Most of the literature on student between-track mobility or school choice examines decision making in comprehensive systems or in tracked general education schools. In this article we present data on inter-school mobility (transfers) of upper secondary students in a differentiated educational system with academic, professional and vocational tiers…

Educational equality has been a central tenet framing educational policy in Nordic welfare states and stimulating school reforms in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the conceptualisation of equality has fluctuated, reflecting the changing economic and political climate within which policy statements have been made. In this article, we analyse policy…

How is upper secondary education organised across OECD countries? This level of education, which most frequently serves students aged between 15 to 18, is generally the first time when learners have significant capacity to shape the content of their learning, for example by opting for general or vocational education, choosing their subjects and…

This study tests an integrative model, which delineates how students' academic motivation, academic self-efficacy and learning strategies (processing strategies and regulation strategies) at the end of secondary education impact academic adjustment in the first semester of the first year of higher education (FYHE) and subsequent academic…

In this article we introduce key concepts from critical psychology to explore their potential when operationalised in qualitative, empirically-based analyses of career guidance and counselling. Critical psychology is particularly concerned with understanding the concrete lines of action that can support generalised human agency -- a focus that is…

This study aimed to examine career and academic outcome expectations of high school students. Data of the research designed in the survey model were collected from 695 students attending ninth to twelfth grades of high schools that offer academic and vocational education in city center of Nigde in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey in the…

Purpose: This article explores the relationship between governmental policy and the development of higher vocational education in China. Design/Approach/Methods: The article begins with a textual analysis of dozens of policy documents on higher vocational education issued by the Chinese government since 1999. Findings: The article argues that the…

The present study aims at investigating the long-term cognitive effects of vocational education and training (VET) in Sweden and Denmark using data from the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills. While Sweden has moved towards a more academic vocational education, Denmark has kept the apprenticeship system. Using multiple regression analysis we estimate…

The article deals with the structural conflict between academic and vocational postcompulsory secondary education involving the negative selection to vocational education. The conflict is treated from the historical perspective with the aim of explaining historical factors and social mechanisms that have contributed to the persistence of the…

This study examines how access to the academic curriculum creates patterns of inequality in Australian schools. Examining students' access to the academic curriculum gives an indication of how schooling is structured to support students in pursuing higher education opportunities. To date, little research attention has been given to the…