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

Authors

  • Zeki Akıncı Akdeniz University
  • Gülseren Yurcu Akdeniz University
  • Murad Alpaslan Kasalak Akdeniz University

Keywords:

Expectation, Perception, Motivation, Tourism Students, 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.

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Author Biographies

Zeki Akıncı, Akdeniz University

Zeki Akıncı is PhD in Business Management, with about 25 years of experiences in research, teaching and tourism industry. He has worked as manager of department and hotel more than 10 years in tourism industry. He has published many papers about human resources working in lodging enterprises in refereed academic journals. He has authored several books about hotel management and crisis management in hotel enterprises and also undertaken various research programs. His research contributions have drawn greater response to issues including employment, tourism planning and policy, tourism education, human resources and sustainable accessible tourism. Presently, he is an assistant professor in the department of tourism management in tourism faculty of University of Akdeniz in Turkey. 

Gülseren Yurcu, Akdeniz University

Gülseren Yurcu  is PhD in Tourism Management. Her research areas are social psychology,social and human sciences, wellness&Spa and tourism education. Presently, she is an assistant professor in the department of recreation management in tourism faculty of University of Akdeniz in Turkey. 

Murad Alpaslan Kasalak, Akdeniz University

Murad Alpaslan Kasalak is PhD in Business Management. His research areas are tourism and hotel management, entrepreneurship, sustainable ecotourism and tourism management. Presently, he is an assistant professor in the department of recreation management in tourism faculty of University of Akdeniz in Turkey.

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Published

2017-03-24

How to Cite

Akıncı, Z., Yurcu, G., & Kasalak, M. A. (2017). A comparison of the pre-education expectations, perceptions developed through the experience, and motivation of the students taking vocational tourism education. Journal of Human Sciences, 14(1), 10–23. Retrieved from https://j-humansciences.com/ojs/index.php/IJHS/article/view/4364

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Education