A Study on the Awareness of Academic Development Planning Among Preschool Education Majors in the Era of Fertility Decline — Taking Xianda College of Economics and Humanities, Shanghai International Studies University as an Example

This study focuses on the issue of academic planning awareness among preschool education majors in the context of the era of fertility decline. It takes 654 current students from Xianda College of Economics and Humanities, Shanghai International Studies University as the research subjects, and conducts empirical analysis through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The study finds that: (1) Students’ overall awareness of academic planning is weak(the average score is less than 1.9), with a risk of grade-level discontinuity: lower grades focus on short-term goals, while upper-grade students experience stagnation in planning implementation due to uncertainty in industry prospects; (2) Students have a basic awareness of the challenges posed by sub-replacement fertility (the average score is 2.20), but fail to effectively translate this into proactive planning actions, and pay insufficient attention to the potential opportunities within the industry; (3) Professional identity serves as the core driving force for academic planning(r=0.280~0.370), yet nearly half of the students exhibit low levels of professional liking, and the pressure of fertility decline further weakens their professional confidence; (4) Teacher guidance exerts the most significant impact on planning behaviors (r=0.364), while the deficiency in curriculum practicality constrains students’ competitiveness. Based on these findings, this study proposes constructing a phased academic planning education system, strengthening the academic tutor tracking mechanism, optimizing curriculum practicality, and expanding diversified internship platforms, so as to enhance students’ adaptive capacity in responding to the challenges of fertility decline.