Research project
Lost in transition? Multiple Interests in Contexts of Education, Leisure and Work
The overall aim of the project is to investigate interests and their development over time in a daily life context, with particular attention for the transition from late secondary to post secondary education, and from late post secondary education to early career.
- Duration
- 2017 - 2022
- Funding
-
ERC
Researchers
- dr. Thea van Lankveld - postdoc
- Niklas Ziegler - PhD candidate
- Joris Beek - PhD candidate
- Jael Draijer - PhD candidate
- prof.dr. Sanne Akkerman - supervisor
- dr. Larike Bronkhorst - co-supervisor
'I am going to graduate! But what exactly should I do next?' All adolescents face this question in transition to postsecondary education or to early career. Essential for sustainable choices is consolidating one’s interest, as interest is consistently proven to be a motor for student engagement and learning. Yet, choosing a direction in line with one’s interest appears to be difficult, with many adolescents feeling lost, dropping out, switching programmes, or successfully graduating but regretting choices afterwards.
Interest research has not yet been able to explain these challenges, as it has mainly focused on studying interest development within one predefined domain (e.g. mathematics, psychology) and context (e.g. mathematics class, psychology course). As such, what is currently lacking is a comprehensive understanding of individual trajectories of interest development and interest consolidation.
Aim
The overall aim of the project is to investigate interests and their development over time in a daily life context, considering multiple interests of a person and multiple contexts that one participates in. There is particular attention for the transition from late secondary to postsecondary education, and from late postsecondary education to early career.
App inTin
The main research instrument is a smartphone application which allows participants to keep track of their interests in daily life. Participants use this app every two hours for one week every four months over the course of three years. They are asked to report on the interests they experienced in the past two hours and the contacts they shared this interest with.
Participants
The app will be used by a total of 800 students, spread equally over the different levels of the Dutch education system (vmbo/havo/vwo and mbo/hbo/univeriteit). Joris Beek focuses on the vocational track (vmbo/mbo) in his PhD-research; Jael Draijer on the higher professional education track (havo/hbo) and Niklas Ziegler on the (pre-)university track (vwo/wo). In addition to the inTin-app, interviews and observations are conducted with a small selection of the participants.
Contact
Please use the e-mail address intin@iclon.leidenuniv.nl for all correspondence about this research project.