Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Zululand, 2004. / This study investigates the influence of career education on career choices. The aim was to find out if there is any significant difference amongst learners in their career choices. The second aim was to establish the relationship, if any between gender and career choices. To this end, a questionnaire was administrated to a representative sample of high school learners from Aquadene Secondary and Richards Bay Secondary in the Empangeni District of Education. The present study revealed that there is a significant relationship between learners' fields of study and their career choice. Findings also reveal that there is no relationship between learners' gender and their career choice. This shows that there is very little difference between male and female learners choice of careers. As a result learners are choosing careers across various fields irrespective of gender.

The complexity of robotics and automated systems in manufacturing today requires service technicians to have extensive knowledge and skills. Programs offering educational curricula for robotics and automated systems are primarily available in colleges and universities. These programs, however, lack practical application and do not meet industry requirements. Today, technicians require more skills and practice than theory. Since the vocational education students at the secondary level are trained more in skills and practical application than in theory, it is logical to assume that gaps in the work force could be filled by individuals properly trained in high school. To accomplish that, it was necessary to develop a curriculum that could be taught at the secondary vocational education level. Such a curriculum was not in existence at the outset of this study. The approach to the development of an operable curriculum was based on a survey method of research to collect the necessary data. A 50-item survey instrument was developed and sent to 110 contact persons in industry, who use robots and automated systems for manufacturing their product. The mean for the responses was calculated and a t-test was used to make comparisons between present and anticipated future industry needs. Based on the recommendations of a reviewing board, the results of the analysis were used to develop a suggested curriculum for a four-year program for robotics/automated systems service technicians. The findings indicate that industry requires technicians to have extensive backgrounds that provide positive work ethics, excellent communication skills, high quality standards for workmanship and safety, the ability to establish realistic vocational goals, conscientious awareness of safe practices, leadership skills, and functional math and science skills. Technology skills require strong backgrounds in electronics, blueprint reading, basic electricity, machine tool fundamentals, electro-mechanical devices, and robotic applications. In conclusion, industry requires service employees to have extensive backgrounds in general knowledge skills as well as technology skills. More valuable to the industry than any other technical skill, however, is the ability to analyze systems and solve problems. Oral communication is important for service persons because it often reflects company image and helps future sales.

The purpose of this research was to commence the development of a Chinese Vocational Interests Inventory (CVII) which will assist Chinese secondary school students in the identification of their vocational interests. The inventory contains 323 items which include a variety of occupational activities and titles. The occupational titles were selected from Chinese Dictionary of Occupational Titles based on the popularity of occupations in PRC and categorized into 11 subgroups which represented a majority of occupational groups. The occupational activities which related to each occupational title were generated and refined from a description of the nature and work activities of selected occupations defined by occupational specialists in Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the U.S. Labor Department (1991). Further design of the study included establishing preliminary reliability and validity of the CVII, and confirmatory factor analysis to identify occupational interests areas. The CVII was administrated to 454 Chinese secondary school students who voluntarily participated in the project. The results of this preliminary study suggested the CVII have reliability (r =.98), concurrent validity (r =.65) between expressed occupation interests and inventoried interests, and internal validity (r =.81, occupational title versus occupational activities). Principal-component analysis extracted nine factors from 11 proposed subscales of the CVII. They are labelled as Artistic, Science & Technology, Business, Artistic creativity, Scholastic, Legal, Medical, and Service. The combination of some factors is compatible with John Holland's 6 occupational categories, indicating to a certain extent universal value of career interests. Gender difference was found in both factors clusters and occupation preference in which female students favored Liberal Art, Performing Art, and other language expressing related occupations, whereas male students were strongly interested in Science, Engineering, and Mechanical type of occupations. The homogeneous scales for female students and the combined-gender students were established throughout the factor analyses. More research will be needed to develop homogeneous scales for the male students, and to collect test-retest reliability and predictive validity by using criterion groups in order to develop a menu for the CVII.

The intent of this study was to study high achieving students' career decision-making associated with thinking styles and to examine factors influencing career choices. A causal-comparative research design and correlational research design were used, with a sample of 209 high school students. Data were gathered from two International Baccalaureate (TB) programs and a Governor's School Program. Students responded to two types of questionnaire---the Thinking Style Inventory, and A Questionnaire Related to Career Choices and Students' Sensitivity toward Environmental Forces.;The findings of this study demonstrated that the effect of program on different thinking styles was significant (p < .05), and the effect of gender on different thinking styles was significant ( p < .01). Also, the findings showed that an external thinking style was a good predictor for choosing the social science area for future careers. However, students with a higher external thinking style chose computer and math areas 73% less than students with lower external thinking style. Also, the findings of the study demonstrated that students' passion for a specific subject and family environment were also important factors influencing career choices of high achieving high school students.;The study suggested the importance of taking thinking styles into consideration for the career development of high-achieving adolescents. In addition, the environmental influences of parents, family, and schools are also important considerations for students' career development, along with students' inherent interest in a subject. Therefore, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors should recognize their own critical roles in shaping students' career development.

One of the most striking characteristics of society today is the marvelous development that is everywhere manifest along industrial lines. In nearly every department of industry the simple processes which formerly prevailed have become differentiated into a great variety of activities, and all have been organized into a definite system. Methods of exploiting the earth in search for raw materials, processes of manufacture, and modes of distribution and exchange have become wonderfully complex. The influence of this change is far-reaching. It permeates every phase of life. It operates in the church as well as in the state, in the home as well as in the school.

A thesis submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg , 2017 / This thesis is premised on the notion that the perceived lack of quality of curriculum delivery in the vocational education sector in South Africa is probably due in part to the weaknesses of content knowledge selected for inclusion in the curriculum of various programmes offered in the vocational education sector. The thesis examines the nature of knowledge specified in the English subject offered in the Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) Colleges. Drawing on Basil Bernstein’s notion of the pedagogic device, the study follows the English curriculum as it starts from the production field where new ideas are created and modified, to the recontextualization field where curriculum designers and textbook writers produce written curriculum documents, to the reproduction field where the students are taught and examined. The study further examines the English lecturers’ insights about their perceptions and understanding of the curriculum they teach from. My findings indicate that the English curriculum follows an outcomes-based design structure, and displays a lack of conceptual integration, knowledge sequence and progression. The approaches to the teaching of English which inform the construction of the intended curriculum display characteristics of a generic horizontal nature. The intended curriculum does not incorporate features that encourage a mastery of technical terms which are appropriate for different occupational fields followed by the TVET College students. The design structure of the curriculum fails to guide the lecturers in terms of unpacking approaches to the teaching of English and how to use them in their teaching, as well as clarify the progression process and ways of aligning lesson planning to the occupational needs of the students. An analysis of this curriculum identifies strengths and weakness, highlights accomplishments, and focuses on realistic policy alternatives for the TVET sector, curriculum design, pedagogical and assessment practices. / MT 2018

This exploratory case study examined how and if career counselors learned about the impact of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) on occupations, including which actions, activities, and conditions helped or hindered their learning, and what impact this learning had on their professional practice. The data included questionnaires and interviews with 15 participants who worked as career counselors and expressed that learning about the impact of automation and AI on occupations was important in their work. Three primary findings emerged from the study. The first finding illustrated that participants primarily learned through informal and incidental learning and all participants described the lack of a clear path to learning. This was framed through four subthemes, including learning that emanated from reflection on “Aha!” Moments, learning that involved a process of continuous learning, formal learning that was lacking but desired, and participants stating that they did not seek out the learning. The second finding revealed that agency, openness, collaboration, and reflective practice helped learning, while limits to time, resources, and opportunities for learning hindered learning. The third finding showed that such learning impacted participants’ professional practice by affecting their interactions with clients and their professional development as career counselors. This demonstrated the application of the learning and connected it directly to the work of career counselors. This study contributes to the growing body of literature examining informal and incidental learning in complex and chaotic domains and provides recommendations for research and practice, specifically addressing how the results of this study can be used to support the professional development of career counselors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.