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Educational Interest Trend among young children

Article · March 2013

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Sarika Mohta
Om Kothari Group of Educational Institutes, Kota, India.
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Educational interest trend among young children

Dr. Sarika Mohta
Director, Muskaan Counselling centre, Kota (Rajasthan), India.

Abstract
To know the educational interest trend among young children and effects of gender differences and
environment on interest trend.434 students of Aklank and Modi Public School of Kota (Rajasthan) were
taken for study, in this 158 were girls and 276 were boys. Dr. S.P. Kulshrestha’s Educational Interest
Record was implied. It measures interest in seven areas- Agriculture, Commerce, Fine Arts, Home-Science,
Humanities, Science and Technology.Thus after scoring and analysis the data obtained, could be said that
Gender and environment affect interests. And current educational trend among young children is highest
interest in technology, than commerce, fine arts, science, humanities, home-science and least interest in
agriculture.

Key words: - educational interest, gender differences, environmental effect.

Introduction
Educational interests are defined as one’s own pattern of preferences, likes and dislikes
preferred in any manner, wisely or unwisely by self or by any other source for a given educational area
or subject.

Interests and attention are very closely related; they play an important role in the
development of the behavior and personality and are very important to understand the individual and to
guide his future plans and activities.

The intelligence and aptitudes are unable to predict educational and vocational success
without considering the individual’s interest. Therefore the identification and measurement of interests
is very essential for the educational and vocational guidance. It also aid students to adjust themselves to
their education by making wise choices of the subjects of study. Only by making a right choice will
each child be able to utilize his educational potentialities to the maximum possible extent.

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Formerly, it was believed that interests reject inborn abilities (Woodworth, 1918), but the
recent trend is to emphasize the fact that interests are the product of individual’s environment.
(Thorndike, 1935, Tuffle, 1940, etc). So present study is for identification of the interests of Kota city
students.

Objectives
(i) To know the Educational Interest trend among youngsters.

(ii) To know gender differences in educational interest choice making.

(iii) To know the environment impact on educational interest.

Method
Sample

All 443 students158girls and 276 boys studying in class 9th and 10th of Aklank and Modi public
school of kota were taken for study. Both schools are CBSC affiliated, private school, co-
educational in nature.

Tools

Dr. S.P. Kulshrestha’s “Educational Interest Record “.was used. It is well researched, reliable
and valid test which measures educational Interest in seven different areas. These seven areas of
educational Interest contain 98 educational subjects/activities. These seven major areas are –

(i) Agriculture (AG) (ii) Commerce (Co)

(iii) Fine Arts (FA) (iv) Home-Science (HS)

(v) Humanities (HS) (vi) Science (SC)

(vii) Technology (TE)

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Procedure
Permission was taken from the school authority. Then one introductory class was taken of the
students to establish rappert. After that the EIR was administered in both the schools on the
sample of students. After the students answered the questionnaire, the same was collected and
subjected for scoring and interpretation. The raw scores were calculated with the scoring method
as given in the manual. As per manual scores ranging from 0 to 1 were considered as low
interest,2-3 were considered as below average interest, 4-5 were considered as average
interest,6-9 were considered as above average interest and 10-14 were considered as high
interest.

Table:-1 Educational Area Wise selection in Percentage.

Combined Boys Girls

N=434 276 158

1666 1138 528

AG (383.87) (41.23) (334.17)
(27.41%) (29.45%) (23.86%)

2831 1860 971

Co (652.30) (673.91) (614.55)
(46.59%) (48.13%) (43.89%)

2803 1585 1218

FA (1645.85) (574.27) (770.06)
(46.13%) (41.01%) (55.06%)

2363 1389 974

HS
(544.47) (503.26) (616.45)
(38.89%) (35.94%) (44.03%)

2762 1786 976

HU (636.40) (647.10) (617.72)
(45.43%) (46.22%) (44.12%)

SC 2779 1844 935

(640.32) (668.11) (591.77)
(45.73%) (47.72%) (42.26%)

2936 1957 979

TE (1676.49) (709.05) (619.62)
(48.32%) (50.46%) (44.25%)

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Table:-2 Educational Interest Areas.

Combined Boys Girls

I TE TE FA

II Co Co TE

III FA SC HU

IV SC HU HS

V HU FA Co

VI HS HS SC

VII AG AG AG

Analysis of Data, Result and Discussion

After scoring of all the 434 record form as per the instructions, the analysis of the data was done
as per following;-

1. First step was to find out the number of students selecting the faculty (total number N and
boys and girls wise).

2. Since the maximum score could be 14 for any faculty, therefore, the numbers of students
selecting the faculty were multiplied by 14 to get the selection score.

3. To get the percentage of students selecting the faculty, it was decided data divided by the
total boys/girls sample number and than it was multiplies by 100.

4. To get the figure selecting the faculty the percentage figure were multiplied by 14.

The number of statistics presented in table 1 is as;- (i) The number

Multiplied by 14 (ii) The percentage multiplied by 14 (iii) The percentage.

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Table-1 shows the percentage of students’ interest in each subject, it also shows girls and
boys separate educational interest percentage in each subject. Table-2 shows combined, boys and
girls separate highest interest for each subject.

If we talk about our first objective of study that is “To know the Educational Interest
trend among youngsters” , As per table we find that youngsters shows highest interest in
technology, than commerce, fine arts, science ,humanities, home-science and least interest in
agriculture.

As we know Kota is a coaching hub where students come from all over India to take
coaching classes for preparation of IIT, JEE, AIEEE, PET etc, they come to Kota to take a dream
of becoming an IITian that we clearly can see in the results. In these days because of
privatization of banks and insurance company and media influence commerce graduates and
professionals are in demand for job and getting higher salary packages so commerce is having
second choice. Influence of media, name and fame in art area made fine arts the third interest
among the youth after that all traditional subjects’ as science, humanities, home-science and
agriculture.

If we take into consideration our second objective of study “To know gender differences
in educational interest choice making”, we can clearly see where as boys are showing higher
interest in Technology than Commerce, Science, Humanities, Fine- arts, Home-Science,
Agriculture, the girls are showing higher interest in Fine-arts, Technology, Humanities, Home
science, Commerce, Science, and Agriculture.

In our society there is a role-differentiation between girls and boys so as per that their
interests are also different. Generally boys shows more interest in science and technology where
as girls find humanities, fine-arts, home-science more interesting because these subject help them
in fulfilling their duties where also helps in doing those kind of jobs where they can take care of
their family and profession both. Boys results are as per expectation but we can see girls are
showing second highest interest in Technology this is the impact of that environment where they
live means Kota a coaching hub, where every one IITian the dream to be an IITian or engineer.
Girls are too in that flow.

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Here our third objective of study automatically proved with first two objectives that
Environment affects the educational choices.

Conclusion
The present study is showing that youth has interest in Technical subjects, commerce and fine-
arts, Environment and gender both affects the educational interest.

Limitations

The limitations of this research are as following:-

(i) This investigation was conducted in the city of Kota (Rajasthan) only.
(ii) Present research was conducted In two schools and on 443 students only.
(iii) This study was conducted on urban students only.
(iv) The research was conducted only on students of CBSE affliated schools, managed by
private management.
(v) The variable under study was used is only educational interest.\\

Suggestions for further study

Therefore, the following suggestions are made to look into the effectivness of counselling should
be kept in consideration:-

(i) The same study on same lines may be conducted on more schools and on larger sample.
(ii) This study may be conducted in other cities of Rajasthan and other states of India.
(iii) This study was conducted on urban students only. This may be conducted on Rural
students also, and also a comparative study between urban and rural students be
conducted.
(iv) A study also be done on this topic as a comparative study between Government Managed
and Private Managed schools.

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(v) The study also can be conducted to consider the criteria as socio- economical status too.

References
o Bhargava Mahesh, (2006) Modern Psychological testing and measurement Agra,
H.P.bhargava Book house.

o Kulshrestha, S.P (1967). Interest patterns of Boys at Agra, Manika.

o Kulshrestha, S.P (1968). Values and vocational interests in intermediate students. M.Ed
Dissertation. Agra uni.

o Kulshrestha, S.P (1978). Educational Interest Record manual.

***

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