抄録
The purpose of this paper is to present a summary of the analysis of students'preferences for senior secondary curriculum and their course selectivity in relationto college aspirations. We attempted to approach this study from three aspects.First we looked at hierarchies and at inter-course relationships in preferences asrevealed by examination patterns at entrance and by senior-year “hindsight” preferencesin relation to the courses in which the respondents were actually enrolled.We then examined stability and shifts in preferences from examination and entryto graduation. Finally, we looked into senior-year “hindsight” preferences inrelation to the reasons expressed for those preferences, their relation to collegeaspirations, and the reasons why dissatisfied students were enrolled in other thanthe curriculum that, as seniors, they preferred.
The data used in this paper were based upon the responses to the questionnairesentitled “Research on Course Selectivty and Career Perspectives AmongMale Upper-Secondary Students”, which were administered in the middle ofDecember 1966, to 72007 senior secondary students sampled from all over Japan, except the north-eastern parts to the Kanto-disrtrict.
The paper reports four findings (1) preference patterns and realization, (2) stability, focused adjustment, and instability in course preferences, (3) some interpretationsof choices and preferences, and (4) some impacts of college aspirationsupon the course preferences among senior secondary school students.
In the process of the analysis, the author has introduced some new concepts: One of them is the course preference patterns with three symbols and three digitlocations in order to analyze their stability and shifts; on the other hand theauthor constructed four types of college aspirations to carry an analysis of theimpacts of the college aspirations upon “hindsight” preferences for senior secondarycurriculum. The paper is characterized by these concepts which are in the keypositions of the analysis.
