Interests, reasons and subject choice

Gerald Elsworth
Adrian Beavis, ACER

Abstract

Evidence from recent Australian research indicates that vocational and educational preferences and choices are related thematically in a manner that is well described by Holland's RIASEC themes. A recent Australia wide survey of the curriculum choices of senior secondary students showed a pattern of relationships with measured interests that was consistent both with Holland's typology and the hexagonal arrangement of interests. The reasons that students gave for their subject choices were also classified and described.