A comparison of the pre-education expectations, perceptions developed through the experience, and motivation of the students taking vocational tourism education

Abstract

The quality of tourism education provided at vocational schools could be achieved through a two-way interaction between the school and the students. In order for tourism education provided at vocational schools aiming to train mid-level human resources for the tourism sector to be at desired quality, it is of paramount importance to know the levels of expectations, perceptions, and motivation of students, who are the most important elements of education.This study aimed to determine students’ pre-education expectations, perceptions developed in the education process and finally their motivation regarding the tourism education provided. Data were collected through questionnaires consist of a personal information and three scales (motivation, expectation and perception scales for tourism education). In this study, it was detected that the levels of expectations that 423 students receiving associate degree tourism education had prior to tourism education affected the levels of perceptions formed in the process and motivation positively. However, as a result of the fact that the expectations of the students who had high expectations prior to tourism education were not met during their experiences, their perceptions fell compared to the expectation and they had motivation at the rate of the perceptions formed. It was revealed that vocational schools were insufficient to meet student expectations.