Leaning Burnout: Examining the Role of Specialty Identification in Vocational College Students Majoring in Computer Science

Abstract

Vocational colleges students are more likely to suffer learning burnout due to the disadvantaged social recognition and under-equipped educational resources. The symptom of learning burnout is affected by various dimensions and specialty identification (SI) is one of the crucial factors. However, the relationship between SI and learning burnout is little explored in empirical studies. This perspective with a focus on students majoring in Computer Science is rarer despite that Computer Science is a boomingly sought-after major in China and it’s necessary to investigate how do students perceive their major and what’s their real study status. Specifically, to investigate to what extent does the level of SI have an impact on learning burnout and is there any gender differences in the dimensions of SI and learning burnout, we used a sample of 324 college students majoring in Computer Science and issued online questionnaires consisted of the Scale of Specialty Identity and Scale of Learning Burnout. After conducting a regression analysis, this study found that the level of specialty identity especially the dimensions of relevance and behavior are negatively correlated with learning burnout. Moreover, it was discovered that gender difference in SI existed in the aspect of relevance and emotion while barely seen in learning burnout.