DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS FOR CHOOSING TO CONTINUE GRADUATE STUDY IN THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION, RAMKHAMHAENG UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The objectives of the research were (1) investigate the factors affecting choosing to continue graduate study in the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University, (2) compare the factors affecting choosing to continue graduate study in the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University between students choosing to continue study and students choosing not to continue study, and (3) formulate the forecast function of students choosing to continue and not to continue graduate study in the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University. The population of this research was a total of 667 students attending the commencement in the Faculty of Education for the academic year of 2014-2015 in Batch 41 and the students in the Faculty of Education for the Graduate Diploma in Teaching Profession. The questionnaires were used to divide opinions into 4 aspects, i.e., opinions on the institutional aspect with a reliability of 0.92, opinions on the socioeconomic aspect with a reliability of 0.75, opinions on the personal aspect with a reliability of 0.79, and opinions on the motive aspect to continue study with a reliability of 0.84. The data were analyzed by frequency distribution, percentage, and multiple discriminant analysis. The result of testing differences between students choosing to continue study and students choosing not to continue graduate study in the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University showed differences between opinions on the institutional aspect (X 2), occupation (X1), opinions on the socioeconomic aspect (X3), and opinions on the personal aspect (X4) at the statistical significance of 0.05, whereas opinions on the motive aspect (X5) showed no differences. The variables having the highest weight in the discriminant function were opinions on the institutional aspect (X 2), followed by occupation (X 1), opinions on the socioeconomic aspect (X 3), opinions on the personal aspect (X 4), and opinions on the motive aspect to continue study (X5), respectively. The discriminant function was shown as follows: ZY = 0.810 ZX 2+0.631ZX 1+0.605 ZX3+ 0.563Z X 4+ 0.499 ZX5 The formulated function forecasted the members of students choosing to continue study and students choosing not to continue graduate study in the Faculty of Education, Ramkhamhaeng University accurately accounting for 59.37 percent.