Educational pathway coaching as an innovative design component of a study-integrated programme

Implementation as part of a design-based research study

Abstract

A significant proportion of school leavers are undecided as to whether they should pursue vocational education or embark upon further study following the completion of their higher education entrance qualification. Despite the wide range of available career and study guidance programmes, they do not feel sufficiently confident in their decision. For a significant proportion of individuals, commencing a degree programme often results in the phenomenon of dropout and reorientation. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a continuation of the vocational orientation or career choice process.

In the recently developed model of study-integrated vocational education (SiA), the decision regarding the choice of vocational education and/or study is only to be made upon the conclusion of a preliminary phase spanning 12 to 18 months, without this being associated with a dropout. The fundamental stage is accompanied by educational pathway coaching (EPC), the objectives and characteristics of which were initially only approximately defined.

The article provides a comprehensive account of the implementation of the EPC within the framework of the SiA, underpinned by the methodological principles of Design-Based Research (DBR). Following a thorough exposition of the methodological principles underpinning the research and the establishment of a theoretical frame of reference, the findings from the development and implementation processes are presented. Over two cycles of development, testing and evaluation, a goal-oriented implementation concept for the EPC was formulated from a practical perspective. This concept can be employed in a range of other fields of application beyond the narrower testing framework. A total of 29 "design principles" were developed as the substrate of the scientific analyses, which can guide the theory-based development of EPC concepts within the framework of the DBR concept as cross-case findings.