Abstract:

Choosing an educational trajectory is an important moment in the life of every school students. Thanks to him, school students can realize their needs and interests. However, the freedom to choose an educational trajectory is limited by several institutional, organizational, group and personal factors.
The purpose of the article is to analyse the plans of high school children in choosing an educational trajectory.

Research tasks:
1) to study the influence of educational motivation and success in learning on the student's choice of educational trajectory.
2) to identify the influence of socio-demographic factors (type of school, economic status of the family, place of residence) on the student's choice of educational trajectory.

The empirical basis of the article is the results of a mass survey of high school children conducted in the Sverdlovsk region, Russia (January - February 2021, n = 700).

The article shows that half of high school students (48%) plan to study at university, and a quarter (24%) – at college. 36% have already decided on the choice of specialty and educational organization. Those who plan to study at the university more clearly represent the direction of their future studies.

The choice of an educational track depends on the educational motivation. Those who do not want to study are 4 times more among those planning to study at college than among those planning to study at university. High school children who plan to continue their studies at the university differ from those who plan to study at college in their attitude to the knowledge they are currently receiving. For the first group, the value of the acquired knowledge and the desire to enrich it is 2 times higher than for the second (46.6% / 21.1%).

The dependence between success in learning and the choice of educational trajectory is revealed. Successful students are more likely to continue their studies at the university, and unsuccessful students are more likely to go to college.

The choice of the educational trajectory is influenced by all the analysed socio-demographic factors: the type of school, the economic situation of the family, the place of residence. Students of lyceums and gymnasiums were more likely to talk about the desire to continue their studies at the university, and ordinary schools’ students - at college. High school children from economically prosperous families are more likely than from poor ones to plan to continue their studies at university (57% vs. 18.8%). Students from the lower middle class (29.6%) and the upper lower class (36.4%) are more focused on continuing their studies at college. Students from poor families were several times more likely to note that they do not plan to continue their studies yet but will go to work. High school children of Yekaterinburg and other large cities of the Sverdlovsk region (about 60%) plan to study at the university more often. Students of medium-sized cities were more likely to talk about the desire to continue their studies at college (30.0% and 43.6%, respectively).

It is concluded that the choice of an educational track reflects the influence of subjective and objective factors.

Keywords:

High school children, educational trajectory, choose an educational trajectory, factors on the student's choice of educational trajectory.