Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Educational neuroscience (EN) is a transdisciplinary convergence of neurosciences, education, and psychology that has gained international momentum. Its purpose is to advance the application of neurosciences in P-12 education as a way to improve the design of instructional environments and practices that support the multidimensional social, affective, and cognitive learning needs of students. The potential integration of EN practices into school settings affects educators and school social workers who promote positive school climates and address barriers to learning. Despite the ascension of scholarly discourse proposing the integration of neuroscience knowledge with education practices, a shared conceptual framework remains elusive for the emergent discipline, and the translation of EN into education practices is unexamined. A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted to investigate the emerging conceptualization of EN practices and implications for promoting a positive classroom climate. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with two administrators, three teachers, and 48 students as well as four classroom observations from three different fourth and fifth grade classrooms in a US Midwest city. The data analyses generated a conceptual model that revealed how EN practices unfolded in the classroom to facilitate the co-creation of a positive classroom climate. The data indicated that a humanistic organizational structure facilitated the EN practice implementation, and the teacher’s regulatory state was central to the application process. Five themes emerged that characterized EN practices: teaching neuroanatomy, reflecting on emotions, selfregulating, adapting classroom boundaries, and honoring the whole student. Interactions resulting from these practices aligned with four established climate dimensions: teaching and learning, structure of the learning environment, safety, and relationships. The resulting classroom climate contributed to students’ resiliency, as observed by reduced office referrals, readiness to learn, empowered decision-making, greater empathy, and enhanced social connectedness. Findings from this study support a conceptual model for the application of EN practices in elementary classrooms and align with existing research that suggests positive climates promote healthy development, social-emotional learning, and academic success. The results of this study will inform future translational EN inquiry as well as educators and school social workers who seek to co-create positive classroom climates using transdisciplinary EN practices.

Övergången från studier till arbete kan upplevas som en stressande period i livet för universitetsstudenter. Studiens syfte är att undersöka de stressorer som sistaårsstudenter upplever inför övergången från akademiska studier till yrkesliv, samt vilka copingstrategier studenter använder för att hantera övergången. Det är även av intresse att undersöka mer eller mindre framgångsrika copingstrategier som studenterna använder i denna övergång. Det genomfördes en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av nio semi-strukturerade intervjuer med sistaårstudenter på universitet och högskola. Intervjuerna genomfördes delvis genom fysiskt möte och delvis via det digitala mötesverktyget Zoom. I analysen gjordes tematisering av intervjuerna som genererade sju olika teman, varav tre teman beskrev olika stressorer och fyra teman beskrev copingstrategier. Resultatet visade att den tydligaste stressorn hos studenterna var oro inför sociala relationer och den copingstrategi som användes mest var omvänt fokus. Dock var denna strategi inte särskilt framgångsrik för studenterna. Med stöd från tidigare forskning var även en betydande stressor brist på arbetslivserfarenhet inom rätt område.

No description available.

There has been limited evaluation to show the perceptions of student participants in school-to-work programs about the impact of school-to-work program participation as being beneficial to their postsecondary educational and career plans, and no research to determine whether perceptions differ significantly across race and gender. In addition, the minimal research conducted to date did not study student participants' perceptions about the impact of the program on their understanding of the relevance of the academics to the worksite and their overall academic success. Nor did the research address the actual change in grades and school attendance of students in school-to-work programs. Students are a major stakeholder group in the school-to-work initiative, and therefore, consulting with them about their perceptions about the impact of school-to-work program participation is an important aspect in school-to-work evaluation. Students have not been consulted in educational program evaluation and have not had a significant voice in the school-to-work arena (Hollenbeck, 1996). It is important to assess the opinions and perceptions of students who are currently participating in school-to-work programs, because they are the major focus of the school-to-work initiative and information that they provide can be used by program administrators and policymakers in making future decisions about school-to-work programs. Such assessment should seek to determine their perceptions about the impact of the program on their overall academic success and future postsecondary education and career choices. It is also important to assess the impact of the program on students' academic success and school attendance. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher and distributed to site coordinators in three school-to-work sites. Site coordinators worked with school staff to administer the questionnaire instrument. One-hundred twenty-four twelfth grade student participants in school-to-work programs, in these three sites, were asked to participate; 62% responded to the survey. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made. • The findings on students' perceptions that school-to-work program participation improved their overall academic performance, increased their acceptance of responsibility, increased their self-confidence and motivation can be an indicator of the success of the school-to-work program. • The positive attitudes of students regarding the school-to-work program as being beneficial to their future education and career plans is important in promoting the concept of "life-long" learning. • The use of measures to determine students' perceptions about understanding the relevance of school-to-work, improvement in academic performance, and overall satisfaction with the school-to-work program can be used as measures to evaluate the success of a school-to-work program. • School-to-work program participation can be instrumental in influencing students to continue their education beyond high school. • School-to-work program participation does not appear to negatively impact any group (gender or race). / Ed. D.

The study identified the contributions families made to the work-readiness of youth with learning disabilities. A qualitative research approach, the in-depth telephone interview, was the primary information-gathering instrument. Two questions were posed to guide the study: 1.What communications or behaviors do families engage in within the contexts of the home, school, workplace, and community that contribute to the work readiness of youth with learning disabilities? 2. What value do these families place on their roles in the development of their youngster's work readiness? Families from the Commonwealth of Virginia were nominated by parent resource center directors as meeting the criteria established for the study. A total of 27 individuals were "purposefully selected" to be interviewed. The participants were family members of employed youth, age 16 to 22, with documented learning disabilities. Telephone interviews were taped, transcribed, coded, and analyzed using Ethnograph and a three-step coding process. A description of major themes and subthemes which emerged from the analysis was presented in narrative and table form. Participant statements were used to illustrate the themes. Participants identified 29 critical work-readiness skills they perceived youth would need for workplace success. These work-readiness skills supported six themes: human relations, work ethic, compoliance, personal qualities, education and training, and independence. Participants identified the various activities, behaviors, and conversations they engaged in to promote work-readiness in their children within four setting: the homes, school, workplace, and community. These actions were analyzed within and among the four settings, and in relation to the themes established. The themes of education and training and independence were the most prevalent. The family's responsibilities for and abilities to develop work-readiness skills were examined, and the types of assistance they had accessed or believed other families could benefit from were identified. Stakeholder groups and their roles and responsibilities in the collaborative effort to develop work skills were identified. Stakeholder roles included provider, teacher, facilitator, nurturer, communicator, and preparer. Participants reflected on the process of preparing youth with learning disabilities for work, determined what they would do differently, and offered advise on work-readiness skill development to other families of children with learning disabilities. / Ph. D.

It is the purpose of this study to examine the work of visiting teachers or school-social workers in various places which have employed this service for a number of years and to determine some of the contributions which such service makes to the over-all program of the elementary school from the standpoint of services to the child, to his family, and to the teachers.

Recurrent themes identified in the narratives of the research participants revealed their perceptions and experiences of the diverse forms of power in this setting, their understanding and interpretation of the meaning of empowerment, and the building of foundations for effective empowering practices. The research findings show how practitioners enhance their own reflexivity as well as those of service partners and users to create a favorable learning environment. They challenged the dominant discourses and produced alternative ones, thus enriching the meaning of education. They also engaged in different dimensions of empowerment, namely (1) the personal dimension as how service users recaptured a sense of competence to meet life challenges and fight for their own benefits; (2) the interpersonal dimension as how practitioners collaborated with school personnel to safeguard student rights and secure social justice; (3) the school and community dimensions as how practitioners initiated positive changes to school policies and mobilized community resources for student development; and (4) the institutional dimension as how practitioners played the advocacy role in the education sector. / The findings provide a knowledge base for an understanding of the significant aspects of power and empowerment in school social work service. The recommendations induced are put into policy, practice, and research categories. They serve as useful information for policy makers to revisit the existing school social work policy to improve the working conditions of practitioners. They give valuable reference materials for youth workers to apply the empowerment approach in actual practice. They also stimulate other intellectuals to explore future directions of social work research in general, as well as youth and school social work studies in particular. / The research findings suggest that empowerment can be generated through a number of ways and understood in terms of dialogical process, reflexive practice, discourse construction, localized actions, collective actions and multiple interventions. The synthesis of these domains opens up the possibility for developing a framework of empowerment-oriented school social work practice. This framework provides a "map" to guide practitioners to work with power in diverse, dynamic, creative, and contextual ways. / This thesis examines the field experiences of Hong Kong school social workers in encountering different forms of power and carrying out empowering practices. A critical social work perspective is adopted to theorize a conceptual framework to explicate the narratives collected through in-depth interviews with 15 frontline school social workers. These research participants were chosen with regard to their service experience, the agencies they belonged to, and the types of schools they served. Using discourse analysis as the research strategy adds a power and political dimension in analyzing their narratives in the Hong Kong context. It gives a comprehensive and detailed description of their reactions to the power relations, performances of flexible roles, generation of new discourses, and use of various strategies to initiate empowering practices. / To Su Ming. / "August 2006." / Adviser: Steven Sek-yum Ngai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 1163. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 416-452). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

by Wong Siu Yin. / Bibliography: leaves [i]-vi / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986

by Ming-fai Law. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 291-312). / Abstract and appendix in English and Chinese. / Title --- p.i / English extract --- p.ii / Chinese extract --- p.iv / Declaration --- p.v / Acknowledgement --- p.vi / Dedication --- p.viii / Table of contents --- p.ix / List of Exhibits --- p.xv / List of Appendices --- p.xvii / Desiderata --- p.xviii / Preface: The button --- p.xix / Chapter Section One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of the study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The professional journey --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- The view to students in a prevocational school --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Focus and objectives of the study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5 --- Potential contributions of the study --- p.6 / Chapter 1.6 --- Chapter organization --- p.7 / Chapter Section Two: --- Literature review and theoretical framework --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Literature review (Part 1): School social work in Hong Kong --- p.8 / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Background and development of the school social work service --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- The school social work service delivery --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The expertise of school social work knowledge --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Existing service models --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Policy requirement --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- "Preferred service delivery model and ""social work"" definition of school" --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3 --- The school casework service --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The significance of studying the school casework service --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The special features of the school casework service --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3.2.1 --- The statistics of casework problem natures --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.2.2 --- Clients' impression towards school casework service --- p.23 / Chapter 2.3.2.3 --- Cooperation with school personnel --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3.2.4 --- Working with other helping professionals in the community --- p.28 / Chapter 2.4 --- Conclusion --- p.29 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Literature review (Part 2): The direct work (clinical work) with clients of the school casework service --- p.30 / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1 --- The current working paradigms of school casework service --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Review of the school social work case studies --- p.31 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Preliminary study of school social workers --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2 --- Theories influencing the intervention of school casework service --- p.36 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The biological theory --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- The developmental theory --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Learning and social learning theories --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Cognitive theories --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Delinquency studies --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2.6 --- Family system therapy --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3 --- The cultural dimension - The Chinese values --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Basic conception of Chinese ethics --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- The Chinese way of guiding young persons --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4 --- The epistemological position of the present study --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Comments about the literature review --- p.47 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- The tasks for the present study --- p.52 / Chapter 3.5 --- Conclusion --- p.54 / Chapter Chapter Four --- "Theoretical framework and research objectives: ""Narrative informed practice"" of school casework service" --- p.55 / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.55 / Chapter 4.1 --- "The theoretical doctrine of ""narrative""" --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- "The scope of a ""narrative""" --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Narrative reasoning and logico-scientific reasoning --- p.58 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- "The ""common"" features of a narrative" --- p.60 / Chapter 4.1.3.1 --- Time --- p.60 / Chapter 4.1.3.2 --- Intentionality --- p.61 / Chapter 4.1.3.3 --- Narrative form --- p.61 / Chapter 4.1.3.4 --- Meaning of a narrative --- p.63 / Chapter 4.1.3.5 --- Telling and retelling of a lived experience --- p.66 / Chapter 4.1.3.6 --- The dual landscape of a lived experience --- p.67 / Chapter 4.1.3.7 --- "The relationship between the ""part"" and the ""whole"" of a narrative" --- p.68 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- The narrative asymmetry --- p.69 / Chapter 4.1.5 --- Summing up for the theoretical doctrine --- p.72 / Chapter 4.2 --- Connecting the theoretical doctrine to the practice theory --- p.73 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- """Meaning"" revisited in “narrative informed practice""" --- p.73 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- "The meaning of a ""client""" --- p.74 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Reasons for seeking the school casework service --- p.75 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Theoretical linkage between narrative principles and the casework practice --- p.76 / Chapter 4.2.4.1 --- Time --- p.76 / Chapter 4.2.4.2 --- Intentionality --- p.76 / Chapter 4.2.4.3 --- Narrative form --- p.77 / Chapter 4.2.4.4 --- "Narrative activities within ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.78 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- "Differentiation of ""narrative informed practice"" with other related psychotherapies" --- p.80 / Chapter 4.3 --- """Narrative informed practice"" in action" --- p.83 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- """Narrative informed practice"" and social work values" --- p.83 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- "Goals and objectives of ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.83 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- The roles of the school social worker during the practice --- p.84 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- The worker-client relationship --- p.85 / Chapter 4.3.5 --- "A word about ""emotion"" during the practice" --- p.85 / Chapter 4.3.6 --- "Tasks of the school social worker during the ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.86 / Chapter 4.3.7 --- "The advantages of the ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.88 / Chapter 4.4 --- Conclusion and the research objectives --- p.91 / Chapter Section Three: --- Methodology --- p.93 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Research design and methodology --- p.93 / Chapter 5.0 --- Overview --- p.93 / Chapter 5.1 --- Rationale in adopting a qualitative research --- p.94 / Chapter 5.2 --- The inquiry root - social constuctionism --- p.96 / Chapter 5.3 --- Research design --- p.98 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Naturalistic casework research --- p.98 / Chapter 5.3.1.1 --- The research procedures of the naturalistic casework research --- p.100 / Chapter Step 1: --- Preparation for the research --- p.101 / Chapter Step 2: --- Personal experience method in reviewing the data --- p.104 / Chapter Step 3: --- Peer group meeting --- p.105 / Chapter Step 4: --- Interviewing the clients about the past casework experience --- p.107 / Chapter Step 5: --- Narrative analysis of the author cum researcher --- p.107 / Chapter Step 6: --- Writing the case study --- p.109 / Chapter Step 7: --- Member checking --- p.110 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Clients' evaluation of the school casework service --- p.111 / Chapter 5.3.2.1 --- Locating the scope of evaluation --- p.111 / Chapter 5.3.2.2 --- Areas of evaluation --- p.112 / Chapter 5.3.2.3 --- Steps of evaluation --- p.113 / Chapter 5.4 --- Time-line of the research --- p.114 / Chapter 5.5 --- Conclusion --- p.114 / Chapter Section Four: --- Case studies and evaluation --- p.115 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Background study and the school setting --- p.115 / Chapter 6.0 --- Intro duction --- p.115 / Chapter 6.1 --- Prevocational school as the site of intervention --- p.115 / Chapter 6.2 --- Specific description of the site --- p.117 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Structure of student affairs --- p.117 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Student management --- p.117 / Chapter 6.3 --- Summary --- p.121 / Chapter Chapter Seven --- A story of floating --- p.122 / The first interview --- p.122 / The second interview --- p.127 / The third interview --- p.133 / The fourth interview --- p.137 / Latter interviews --- p.139 / Conclusion --- p.141 / Chapter Chapter Eight --- "“I don't want to go to school!""" --- p.142 / The referral --- p.142 / I was really worried that Wai-hung would be bad --- p.144 / I don't want to go to school! --- p.150 / The family interviews --- p.160 / Post-intervention scenario --- p.167 / Conclusion --- p.167 / Chapter Chapter Nine --- "Violence, tears, crisis and hope" --- p.169 / The referral --- p.169 / The meaning of being a triad member --- p.170 / The history of conduct and the liaison with teachers --- p.171 / The progress --- p.174 / One false accusation leading to one real accusation --- p.175 / The letter exchange --- p.176 / Personal reflection from May 1999 to July 1999 --- p.180 / "The ""new"" start and another hitting" --- p.181 / From an individual story to a story with the family and the school --- p.183 / Kwong-lung´ةs runaway from the family --- p.185 / Turn over a new leaf and the first court hearing --- p.188 / The second court hearing and the remand --- p.191 / 21days of remand --- p.193 / The verdict --- p.197 / The division of labor between the school social worker and the probation officer --- p.197 / Struggle with schooling and life-wrestle --- p.200 / Conclusion --- p.206 / Chapter Chapter Ten --- Transforming body mutilation to family loyalty --- p.208 / Presenting problem of Kaki --- p.208 / Family background of Kaki --- p.209 / Session one: Exploring the stress --- p.210 / Session two: Friends and love --- p.214 / Session three: Teacher's view on Kaki --- p.217 / Session four: A brief encounter --- p.219 / Session five: Peeling off the onion skins again --- p.219 / Session six: Visiting the past --- p.221 / Session seven: Paving the avenue for family interviews --- p.224 / Session eight: The first family interview without Kaki --- p.227 / "Session nine: The sister,the sister's boyfriend and Kaki" --- p.231 / Preparing the end of the school term --- p.233 / Session ten: Support work --- p.234 / Session eleven: Preparing the closure --- p.234 / Session twelve: The termination --- p.236 / Three months' later --- p.238 / Conclusion --- p.239 / Chapter Chapter Eleven --- Clients' post-hoc evaluations --- p.240 / Chapter 11.0 --- Introduction --- p.240 / Chapter 11.1 --- Evaluation data by individual case --- p.241 / Chapter 11.2 --- Significant findings --- p.246 / Chapter 11.2.1 --- Significant events --- p.246 / Chapter 11.2.2 --- The clients' subjective helpfulness of the service --- p.248 / Chapter 11.2.3 --- Intervention strategy --- p.249 / Chapter 11.2.3.1 --- Overall intervention --- p.249 / Chapter 11.2.3.2 --- Office interviews --- p.250 / Chapter 11.2.3.3 --- Letters Versus interviews --- p.252 / Chapter 11.2.3.4 --- Suggestions for improvements --- p.253 / Chapter 11.2.4 --- The qualities of a school social worker during the casework service --- p.254 / Chapter 11.2.5 --- Worker-client relationship --- p.255 / Chapter 11.2.6 --- Subjective usefulness of the casework service --- p.256 / Chapter 11.2.7 --- Usefulness of the evaluation --- p.257 / Chapter 11.3 --- Summary and conclusion --- p.257 / Chapter Section Five: --- Discussion and conclusion --- p.260 / Chapter Chapter Twelve --- Discussion and implications --- p.260 / Chapter 12.0 --- Introduction --- p.260 / Chapter 12.1 --- Limitations of the study --- p.260 / Chapter 12.2 --- Implications for the study --- p.263 / Chapter 12.2.1 --- Implications for the practice theory --- p.263 / Chapter 12.2.1.1 --- "Revisiting the goals and objectives of the ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.263 / Chapter 12.2.1.2 --- Revisiting the roles of a school social worker --- p.264 / Chapter 12.2.1.3 --- A discussion of the intervention of a school social worker --- p.265 / Chapter a. --- Overall intervention --- p.265 / Chapter b. --- Office interviews --- p.266 / Chapter 1. --- The use of metaphors --- p.267 / Chapter 2. --- To maximize the usefulness of interviews more than two persons --- p.268 / Chapter 3. --- Inclusion of different change agents in the interviews --- p.268 / Chapter 4. --- Clients' responsibility --- p.269 / Chapter c. --- Letter exchange --- p.269 / Chapter d. --- Revisiting the qualities of a school social worker during the casework practice --- p.270 / Chapter e. --- Revisiting the worker-client relationship --- p.270 / Chapter f. --- Working with school system --- p.271 / Chapter g. --- Working with other professionals --- p.273 / Chapter h. --- "The discussion of the advantages of the ""narrative informed practice" --- p.273 / Chapter 12.2.2 --- Implications for evaluation --- p.275 / Chapter 12.2.3 --- Methodological implications --- p.275 / Chapter 12.2.4 --- Research implications --- p.278 / Chapter 12.2.5 --- Implications for school casework service --- p.278 / Chapter 12.2.6 --- Recommendations for further research direction and strategy --- p.279 / Chapter 12.3 --- Conclusion --- p.281 / Chapter Chapter Thirteen --- Summary and recommendations --- p.282 / Chapter 13.1 --- "Implications for the practice theory of ""narrative informed practice""" --- p.282 / Chapter 13.2 --- Implications for evaluation --- p.284 / Chapter 13.3 --- Methodological implications --- p.285 / Chapter 13.4 --- Research implications --- p.285 / Chapter 13.5 --- Implications for the school casework service --- p.286 / Chapter 13.6 --- Limitations of this study --- p.286 / Chapter 13.7 --- Future research direction --- p.287 / Chapter Chapter Fourteen --- Epilogue --- p.288 / Chapter 14.1 --- The theoretical struggle --- p.288 / Chapter 14.2 --- The practice struggle --- p.389 / Chapter 14.3 --- The professional journey to a new territory --- p.290 / Reference --- p.291 / Appendices --- p.313

Based on the social cognitive view of the school-to-work transition proposed by Lent, Hackett and Brown (1999), the study presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for career counselling, with special emphasis on enhancing adolescents' career-exploration behaviours and work-related motivations and attitudes. The career readiness model proposed in this study deals with interactions among a number of variables that affect career decision-making self-efficacy, career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, career-exploration behaviour, vocational identity and performance goals. It explains and illustrates the paths and factors that play a significant part in the development of career readiness. / The findings of this study may be used to develop individual and group interventions that will nurture students' school-to-work transitions. / The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among students' performance goals, vocational identity and career-exploration behaviours and to examine the effects of their personal attributes on these variables. / The results support the hypothesis that career decision-making self-efficacy in plays a significant role in career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, exploration behaviour, performance goals and vocational identity of secondary school students. Most of the structural paths in the model were found to be significant. / The study also shows that a strong intention to develop one's career decision-making capacities may significantly enhance exploration behaviour, which Phillips and Blustein (1994) have found to be a vital element of career readiness and job choice. Exploration behaviour is directly correlated to the development of realistic career expectations (Stumpf & Hartman, 1984) and it enables individuals to determine the suitability of certain work environments (Stumpf et al., 1983). The process of career exploration should therefore be essential preparation for students' job searching. / The study concludes that students' self-efficacy in career decision-making is a crucial factor, which, together with outcome expectations, significantly affects performance goals and exploration activities, and strengthens subsequent effort. Students develop an affinity for career-exploration and decision-making activities when they have sufficient self-efficacy and expect positive outcomes. They normally establish goals for sustaining or increasing their involvement in these activities and maintain high performance goals, which, turn, increase the likelihood of active engagement. / The target population was secondary fourth form and secondary sixth form students in Hong Kong. A total of 1216 students from 14 secondary schools participated in this study. Gender had a more significant impact on scores than the effects of different backgrounds. Male respondents generally had lower mean scores than female respondents in most variables. It was also found that the standard deviations of the male students' scores from were greater than those of female students. Apart from gender differences, there were no significant differences among students from various grade levels and streams of study. / Chui, Yat Hung. / Adviser: Alvin Leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0584. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 224-246). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.