published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This phenomenological study documented the influences of a high school career exploration program, Experience-Based Career Education (E.B.C.E.), on the professional lives of nine adults who are former program participants. E.B.C.E. was an experiencebased, student-centered program that helped students develop long-term career goals and then reassessed those goals based on community-based, externship experiences. The findings in this study indicate that the utilization of John Dewey’s experiencebased, student-centered philosophy, the basis for E.B.C.E., effectively enhanced the learning process. The study's data, which was gathered exclusively through an Internet focus group session and follow-up email questions, documented the long-term influence of E.B.C.E. on program participants at Ellen Martin High School, a school that admitted only honors students in a large city in the South. E.B.C.E. participants from Ellen Martin High School participated in the Program for the last two years of high school. Program participants discovered their career interests and researched their career options while learning job skills and life skills during their junior year of E.B.C.E. Their non-paid externships, during their senior year of E.B.C.E., helped students learn how they might fit into the adult work world. Study participants developed life guides/philosophies, such as the importance of responsibility, commitment, dedication, and hard work. Adult mentors played an important role in the lives of the E.B.C.E. students, both personally and professionally and several study participants have maintained contact with their former E.B.C.E. mentors. These mentoring experiences helped E.B.C.E. participants develop a sense of confidence about their abilities in the adult world. They have maintained this sense of confidence in their present profession. Most of the study's participants experienced flow, a condition linking high challenges to feelings of enjoyment, self-worth, and ongoing development, based on their successfully meeting challenges. Some of these challenges were purposely placed in the paths of students to test them while they participated in E.B.C.E. The positive feelings about overcoming challenges, in the adult work world led E.B.C.E. students to seek higher level challenges and this recursively upward pattern of seeking higher challenges has led them to continue seeking higher challenges in their professional lives.

Career education has become an integral part of high school programming in Canada (Gibbons, Borders, Wiles, Stephan & Davis, 2006). Research on school-based career interventions is on the rise throughout North America (Hiebert, 2010; Roest & Magnusson, 2005). The current study is intended to contribute to this growing area by examining the impact of an elective career education class offered in Saskatchewan public schools called Career and Work Exploration 30 (CWE30). CWE30 combines experiential classroom activities and work placements. Experiential learning has long been regarded as an effective way of increasing self-efficacy, as described in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT; e.g., Bandura, 1977), a factor shown to play a role in encouraging career exploration and confident career-related decision-making (e.g., Blustein, 1989). Another contributor to active career exploration is intrinsic motivation, described in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the innate desire to seek out knowledge and growth and to therefore engage in activities that foster this development (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Given the complex and relatively nascent nature of research in this area, the chosen methodology was a case study (Yin, 2014). Multiple types of data were collected. Fourteen grade 11 and 12 high school students from Saskatchewan completed the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form (CDMES-SF; Taylor & Betz, 1983) and a motivation questionnaire (adapted from Kerner et al., 2012) at the beginning and end of the second semester of the 2013-2014 school year. Two students and one teacher were interviewed. Further, the class curriculum, student attendance, blank copies of in-class activities, and homework that was assigned were collected. Results included significant differences in scores on the CDMSE-SF from pre to post testing and common themes on the qualitative measures such as frustration with assignments and placement time commitments; excitement about experiential learning; fears and uncertainties related to career decision-making; and suggestions for improvements emerged. Course documents provided further evidence as to the implementation of the CWE30 curriculum and the inclusion of factors thought to promote intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy as described in SDT and SCT respectively. Implications within the current literature as well as for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the successful aspects of alternative schools aimed at retaining potential high school dropouts could be conducted in the traditional school setting with similar results. The study explored the effect of career education, individual counseling and weekly progress monitoring on how long potential high school dropouts will remain in school. The experimental hypotheses were focused around the following research problems. The first question was "Does the combination of career education, individual counseling and weekly progress monitoring have a more significant effect than weekly counseling and weekly progress monitoring or just weekly monitoring." The second research question asked, "Do the previous methods of intervention significantly effect how many classes students complete." The third question was "Does career education have a more significant effect on females." The fourth question was "Does career education have a more significant effect on Mexican-American males." The research design included three groups of potential high school dropouts who were randomly assigned to three treatment levels. There were two experimental groups and one control group. The first group participated in a career education class, weekly counseling and weekly progress monitoring. The second group participated in weekly counseling and weekly progress monitoring and the control group participated in weekly progress monitoring. The dependent measures were number of days students remained in school, number of classes they were enrolled in at the end of the semester or when they withdrew and the percentage of students in each group that completed the semester. Results of an analysis of variance and Chi Square analysis revealed that career education did significantly effect retention of potential dropouts. Results of t-tests revealed that career education did not significantly increase retention of females or Mexican-American males.

The single most common decision that people between the ages of 16 years and 22 years need to make is that of their career choice. Research in the field of career guidance has shown that the world of work is changing. It is generally accepted that an individual will be presented with many opportunities in the world of work and these give rise to the notion of multiple careers. To predict accurately what these opportunities might be is impractical and naive, if not impossible. Career guidance counsellors are now expected to understand the interrelationships between occupations and occupational groups; an understanding that is vital when providing a comprehensive and realistic career guidance service. The career guidance processes or programs that counsellors use, need to allow for the identification of base or entry level careers that will provide opportunity for both horizontal and vertical career movement. While the schooling system has traditionally been the primary role player in preparing learners for the world of work, recent budgetary cuts have forced schools to focus on academic subjects, and, as a result, career guidance as a subject has become ancillary to the school syllabus. This situation is unlikely to be remedied unless career guidance becomes an examinable subject as are mathematics, physical science, biology and so on. A literature study surrounding career guidance practices in South Africa and career choice and development theories from around the world, suggest that existing career guidance programs in South Africa need to be restructured to allow for a more comprehensive solution for learners, that need to make a career choice. The "PACE" career guidance program was designed to enhance the career knowledge of learners, increase their self awareness in relation to careers, and ultimately to accelerate the career maturity process. Learners from schools in East London were exposed to the program, with the intention of determining the effect of the program on their career maturity levels. Whilst certain elements which constitute career maturity were not influenced by the program, results obtained from the research indicated a significant increase in the overall career maturity level of these learners. Resulting from this dissertation, recommendations have been made relating to the length of a career guidance program, the point of departure and the point of exit, the importance of balancing realism with circumstances, and the necessity for career guidance practitioners to possess a thorough understanding of careers and the various paths that careers may follow. Suggestions regarding further research in the area of career guidance are also provided. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

This study seeks to provide a descriptive analysis of the role of industrial arts in career education. The criteria used as a basis for comparison of industrial arts and career education are (1) clarification of terminology, (2) historical trends in the development of both programs, (3) basic program philosophies, (4) curriculum content, (5) objectives and goals sought by each curriculum, and (6) legislation affecting industrial arts and career education. Career education is more extensive than industrial arts. Industrial arts cannot assume full responsibility for a comprehensive program of career education; however, industrial arts can be involved in activities which will help the student select a meaningful occupation related to industry.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 H36 / Master of Science / Curriculum and Instruction

M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / The aim of this study was to evaluate qualitatively career information as presented at the Careers 2000 exhibition held at NASREC, Johannesburg from 28 April to 6 May 1992. The major reason for doing the research was the lack of data collected in this area, with only one previous project covering such exhibitions in this country. Both qualitative and quantitative data regarding the career information exhibition was collected from 48 pupils and 33 exhibitors. The group of pupils was divided into English, Afrikaans and Black home language groups, with pupils being selected for each group irrespective of race or creed ...

This quantitative study was designed to analyze the percentage of students pursuing selected Career and Technical Education (CTE) vocational courses in schools throughout the State of Florida and to determine if there is a relationship to school district size during school year 2008-2009. The study sought to determine if smaller districts are more likely to have a higher percentage of students enrolled in selected CTE programs that will provide entry into the work force in a skilled, preferably licensed occupation than larger districts. The study also sought to determine the relationship of the number of students enrolled in the CTE courses to school level student attendance rate, drop-out rate, graduation rate, percentage of Black students, percentage of Hispanic students, percentage of White students, and the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced price meals. / by Francis Serra. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This research examines the involvement of the parents of secondary school children in career education and guidance (CEG). It is based on a secondary analysis of existing data from a research project I was involved in. This initial research evaluated the impact of a parent-involved career intervention, 'Parents Turn', in which six career teachers delivered four successive sessions to parent(s) accompanied by their child in the third or fifth year of their secondary school (HAVO) in the Netherlands. The study is important both to the field and to practitioners. Examples of parentinvolved career intervention in CEG are limited, scantily researched, and most were not sustained, which may explain why knowledge on involving parents in CEG is underdeveloped. I discuss these gaps in the evidence by providing an overview on the literature on parental influences and roles in their child's career development, an international inventory of and taxonomy for parent-involved, school-based career interventions, and providing relevant knowledge on parental-involvement in education in general. I then present new analysis of data collected by an earlier evaluation of the 'Parents' Turn' intervention. My secondary analysis approaches this data with new research questions, in-depth analyses and a non-parametric methodology. I integrated the quantitative and qualitative results to understand who was involved in the intervention, why, and whether the impact differed for the learning of parents with and without higher education (HE) qualifications. I also sought to understand the role of the school in the intervention. The findings suggest that a school-initiated career intervention involving parents, in the form of family learning and community interaction, can build and enhance parents' capacity to be involved in and support the career development of their child: their knowledge and skills, parental self-efficacy and parental role-definition. However, the career intervention works differently for parents who have different levels of HE level attainment. Lower-educated parents seem less aware of the consequences of early educational decisions in their child's career and also have different needs for being involved in the career intervention compared to highereducated parents. Despite the impact of the career intervention on their parental capacity, lower-educated parents remain unsure as a parent of how to make use of gained information, guidance and support tools. Third-year (14-16-year-olds) parents' information and support needs are the greatest and they are open to changing their attitude to grant their child autonomy in managing their own career development. The study also finds that features of the present school system are major barriers to sustaining the intervention. Recommendations for policies and practice at school level are offered. A more focused public policy for parental involvement in career education and guidance in secondary schools could both improve the efficiency of the education system and combat social injustice.