Page 124 - FREN-C2021 PROCEEDINGS

Application of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in Predicting Parental Behavioural
Intentions of Selecting a Private Preschool
Attitudes refer to the extent that an individual evaluates a particular behaviour to be favourable or
unfavourable (Ajzen, 1991). Prior studies show that parental behavioural intention of selecting a
school for their children are highly influenced, reliance and dominance by attitudes (Denessen et al.,
2005). If parents have a positive attitude towards the school (for example, good school reputation),
rather than a negative attitude (for example, bad school reputation), they will high likely enrol their
children at the respective school. Based on these literature findings, the present study concludes that
attitudes of parents towards respective private preschool will significantly affect parent’s choice of
preschool.

Subjective norms refer to perceived social pressure by reference groups. Important reference groups
may approve or disapprove of a particular behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980; Ajzen, 1991). Some
finding proves that; social networks received from the workplace, family and relatives (Bowe et al.,
1993) and also from others (for example, friends and relatives) had the highest influence in the school
choice decision that need to be made by parents (Stafford et al., 1996). Based on these literature
findings, the present study concludes that subjective norms will significantly affect parent’s choice of
preschool.

Perceived behavioural as defined by Ajzen is “a control refers to the perceived degree of difficulty to
perform a particular behaviour, which is not fully within volitional control” (Ajzen, 1991). Perceived
behavioural control is known directly to affect the performance of certain behaviours (Ajzen, 1991).
About parental school choice selection, school fees level was identified as one of the perceived
difficult reasons in selecting a school, and perceived difficulties that had been most cited by the study
is the proximity of school from home. All of these difficulties had hindered the parents from selecting
the respective school (Collins and Snell, 2000; Denessen et al., 2005). Hence, this conceptual paper
concludes that perceived behavioural which is one of the components of TPB will significantly affect
parent’s choice of preschool.

Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research
This conceptual paper is delimited by several elements. The first one is; the factors discussed in this
topic is limited to a certain classification of parents’ choices towards private preschool selection such
as factors related to academic reasons, racial reasons, ideological reasons, and geographical reasons.
Hence, further research is still needed to identify other factors that could enhance preschool enrolment
as a whole.

The second limitation of this paper is; this paper only includes the factors or considerations from the
perspective of the parents of the private preschools. Future research may consider private preschool
operators as a sample of future study as the current study is only focused on the perspective of
parents. Apart from that, future research studies may also evaluate the same model, but perhaps from
the context of parents from the public preschool.

Conclusion
Early Childhood Education (ECE) is a very crucial stage of education as it is one of the robust
foundations towards poverty eradication, economic stabilisation, education world-class enrichment
and also social well-being development. A holistic and strong foundation at the very beginning of the
age will prepare the children to succeed in the next education level.
Based on a review of the literature on the behaviour intention and theory of TPB, the results indicate
that theory of TPB is appropriate to be used to study the private preschool selection among parents
based on behavioural factors. The findings provide several factors that affect private preschool
selection among parents based on behavioural factors. Such factors are brand image, enriched
curriculum, word of mouth and some others. The factors are later being classified and discussed into

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