CHILDREN as young as 10 are choosing a career path based on factors such as their achievement in NAPLAN tests and gender, according to a new study that has major implications for primary school educators.
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Students with high NAPLAN scores are more likely to show interest in science, law, engineering, architecture, social work and arts, and children who think their academic performance is above average are more likely to choose medicine, the study of 6492 students from years 3 to 12 across 64 NSW public schools has found.
One of the study's authors, Professor Jenny Gore, who is director of the University of Newcastle's teachers and teaching research centre, said the way primary school tests are handled could have long-term impacts on students' aspirations.
"I think we have to be careful in schools not to too quickly label children as low achieving, because kids develop early ideas of their own abilities," Professor Gore said.
"'Objective' measures of achievement such as NAPLAN scores and 'subjective' measures or perceptions of their achievement were both strong predictors of kids' interests.
"Some early testing is absolutely critical to identifying areas in which they need support and providing the right kind of support. But I think it's how that information gets through to kids that can negatively impact their perceptions."
A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), which is responsible for the development and delivery of NAPLAN tests, did not respond to questions about whether it has considered the long-term impacts of early testing on students' aspirations, but said it supports "early intervention".
"ACARA believes that good assessment, including NAPLAN, is central to identifying literacy and numeracy needs as early as possible to prevent cumulative skill deficits," the spokesman said.
"Teachers are well placed to talk with individual students and their parents about the things that each student can do well and areas where they can improve.
"Low levels of literacy and numeracy will have a significant impact on young people's aspirations and learning at school and later in life."
NAPLAN tests across the four areas of reading, writing, numeracy and language conventions are taken every year by students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Gender is also an important factor across all occupations except science, and matters more than a student's socio-economic status, Indigenous status and school location in shaping their job aspirations, according to the paper, published in the Higher Education Research and Development journal.
"There's a sense in the community that we've made some real progress on gender in recent years, but data suggests university goals are still likely to look similar to what they were in the past," Professor Gore said.
She said the findings reinforce the idea that gender roles influence children from a very young age, but pointed to the interest in science shown by an equal number of boys and girls from early years of schooling as a "surprising" finding with policy implications.
"For teachers, this really means following up when kids express an interest in a particular area at a young age and helping them connect with people who can help, rather than trying to nudge them to a particular pathway," Professor Gore said.
"It means not saying 'girls don't do that' or 'your marks are not good enough', but looking at what sorts of support can be put in place to keep that dream alive."
The paper also notes that career education provided in year 10 in many Australian schools might come too late, with children expressing interests in fields of medicine, law, engineering, architecture and social work as early as year 5.
"[This study] challenges some of the assumptions we hold, that kids aren't thinking about jobs until they reach the upper years of high school. Well, they are," Professor Gore said.
"And we think that kids from low socio-economic backgrounds have lower aspirations. They don't."
She said the findings provided an "interesting foundation for teachers, families, higher education providers and industry to have important conversations".
"There's a real tension between giving kids access to more information so they have a stronger picture of what's involved in certain jobs, and not putting pressure on them at an early age, which can be counterproductive.
"It's a messy, complex world we work in, in teaching."
