Independence in the Process of Choosing a Major for Secondary School Students

In the modern pedagogical agenda, the issue of implementing the minimum career guidance and organizing continuity of education is urgent. Many schools introduce specialization at the secondary school level. The question of the readiness of younger adolescents for professional self-determination remains open. Analysis of issues of independence within the framework of social cognitive theory proves that students at the level of secondary general education must have a solid number of competencies and skills, a profound knowledge in the field of career guidance, so that a statement can be made about the ability to act as a subject of choosing a professional direction. The purpose of the work is to study the student’s independence in the process of forming a decision on choosing a major. The objectives of the study were: studying the experience of introducing specialized education and analyzing current methodological recommendations for the implementation of career guidance; study of theoretical aspects of independence and empirical approaches to its independence in adolescents; study of cases of manifestation of independence in the decision-making process on choosing a major using the method of semi-structured interviews; analysis of research results using inductive and deductive approaches; providing methodological recommendations to increase the independence of students as subjects of choosing a profile direction. For the purpose of the study, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with students in grades 6-8. Analysis of interview transcripts showed that independence and awareness when choosing a major reaches a satisfactory level only by the 8th grade, which allows us to conclude that the optimal age for choosing a major is late adolescence. Thus, we can conclude that in grades 5-7 preference should be given to other forms of implementing the professional minimum, and in grade 8 the possibility of majoring can be introduced.