Factors Influencing the Career Choice of Undergraduate Science Education Students: Implication for Curriculum Studies and Lifelong Learning

Abstract

This study investigated the factors influencing the career choice of undergraduate science education students and draws its implication for curriculum studies. The study was a survey research. The population of the study entails all 100 level undergraduate Science Education Students of the 2024/2025 academic session of the University of Benin, Benin City. A total of one- hundred and ninety-three (193) students cleared into the department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology, formed the sample of the study. The instrument for data collection was a likert scale questionnaire tagged “Career Choice Determining Factors” (CCDF) questionnaire. CCDF was validated by three lecturers from the Faculty of Education, University of Benin. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics. A reliability of 0.76 was obtained.  This instrument was use for data collection. Items in CCDF were scored and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, simple percentage and mean. Findings from this study revealed that Undergraduate Science Education students find themselves as teachers in trainee by co-incident. This is because they were offered admission against their choices.  As a result, most of them do not want to develop their career in teaching. The implication of this is that these students which we devote our time, energy and resources to train and develop now, are seeking for any available opportunity to switch career. This is leaving a negative impact on curriculum delivery and continuing education in Nigeria. The recommendation of this study is that schools should ensure that students who are interested and applied to study science educational courses are given top priority in their academic choices as this will boost their readiness, interest and satisfaction for effective curriculum delivery. 

Keywords: Choice, Career, Career Choice, Passion, Force-choice, Curriculum Studies, Curriculum Delivery, Lifelong Learning.