FACTORS AFFECTING THE NEEDS FOR PURSUING FURTHER STUDY IN A MASTER OF EDUCATIONAL DEGREE, MAJORING IN BUSINESS AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, AT FACULTY OF EDUCATION, CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY: A MULTIPLE DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to survey the needs for pursuing further study of teachers and educational personnel in the master of education program in business and vocational education, at the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University; and (2) to analyze selected factors and formulate a discriminating equation of the needs for pursuing further study. The research sample consisted of 618 teachers and educational personnel who were teaching in business education and vocational education or working in related fields at schools under the Ministry of Education in Bangkok Metropolis and vicinities. The employed research instrument was a questionnaire on factors affecting the needs for pursuing further study in the master of education program, majoring in business and vocational education. The research data were analyzed by employing the SPSS for Windows Program to calculate for descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and multiple discriminant analysis (MDA).
The research findings were as follows:
1. The majority of teachers and educational personnel (52.8 %) did not have the needs for pursuing further study in the master of education program in business and vocational education; while 24.6 percent of them expressed their needs for pursuing further study in the future (from 1-5 years), and only 22.6 percent of them expressed their needs for pursuing further study immediately.
2. Regarding selected factors in discriminating the needs of pursuing further study of teachers and educational personnel, it was found that the First Function discriminated the sample into 2 groups: (1) the group of teachers and educational personnel that needed to pursue further study immediately or needed to pursue further study in the future, and (2) the group of teachers and educational personnel that did not need further study. The main factors that could best discriminate the groups were the following: the faculty from which the person graduated, the subjective norm, and the supports for further study from the work unit. The Second Function discriminated teachers and educational personnel into 2 groups: (1) the group of teachers and educational personnel that needed to pursue further study immediately, and (2) the group of teachers and educational personnel that need to pursue further study in the future or did not need to pursue further study. The best factors of this discrimination in the second function were age, convenience of traveling between place of residence and the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, career expectation, and teaching responsibility in business education and vocational education. These multiple discriminant functions could correctly classify the sample into the three groups of those who needed to further study immediately, those who needed to further study in the future, and those who did not need to further study at 55.50 percent.