Improving the STEM readiness of students from historically underserved groups is a moral and economic imperative requiring greater attention and effort than has been shown to date. The current literature suggests a high school science sequence beginning with physics and centered on developing conceptual understanding, using inquiry labs and modeling to allow students to explore new ideas, and addressing and correcting student misconceptions can increase student interest in and preparation for STEM careers. The purpose of this study was to determine if the science college readiness of historically underserved students can be improved by implementing an inquiry-based high school science sequence comprised of coursework in physics, chemistry, and biology for every student. The study used a retrospective cohort observational design to address the primary research question: are there differences between historically underserved students completing a Physics First science sequence and their peers completing a traditional science sequence in 1) science college-readiness test scores, 2) rates of science college-and-career readiness, and 3) interest in STEM? Small positive effects were found for all three outcomes for historically underserved students in the Physics First sequence.

Theoretically derived career education programs are not well documented in the career development literature. This remains so, despite growing recognition of the negative effects of a schism between theory and practice. This thesis describes a research project that attempted to incorporate theory into practice. The two primary aims were to test and extend career development theory, and to evaluate a theoretically derived career education program. The participants were 296 Year 10 students (mean age = 14.5 years; 147 females & 149 males) attending a government high school in a low socio-economic area of a large Australian city. Career maturity, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career indecision were the key career development variables examined. Students' decision coping patterns were also investigated. There were three studies in all. The first gathered qualitative data from a stratified random sample (N = 30) of staff and parents at the school where the research took place. This study assessed the career decision-making development needs of the students. It also provided context specific information about the opportunity structure of these adolescents, including perceived barriers to making sound career-related decisions. Findings centred upon the belief that students lacked self confidence and were in need of training in life skills generally, and decision-making and goal setting skills in particular. The interviewees also painted a grim picture about students' complacency and sense of resignation to unemployment. The second study involved the cross-sectional examination of baseline survey data, which obtained measures of the career development variables under investigation as well as relevant demographic and contextual data including part-time work experience, school achievement level, and parents' education and employment status. A thorough review of the career development literature, combined with the qualitative data, and the findings of this cross-sectional study, served to guide the design of a career education intervention. Social cognitive career theory's choice model (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) was used as the framework for the career education intervention, which ran for six weeks with one 70 minute lesson per week. Relationships amongst the key variables established previously in the literature were reflected in the results of the cross-sectional study. Demographic and contextual variables were also found to impact upon students' level of career development and decision-making behaviour in anticipated ways. The third study was a longitudinal assessment of the intervention using the baseline survey and three more surveys administered during the same school year. The short and long term effects of the intervention were examined according to mode of delivery, and comparisons were made with controls. The researcher was the career development "expert" facilitator for the implementation of the intervention to 134 students between the first and second testing times. A wait-listed control group of 118 students undertook the intervention between the second and third testing times with regular classroom teachers facilitating it. The remaining students were enrolled in a generic school-based vocational course and were not given the intervention. There was a lapse of eight weeks between each of the first three testing times with the fourth test taken 12 weeks later. Despite its brief nature, the intervention was found to assist students' career development in a variety of ways. It led to gains in career maturity for females regardless of who taught them. However, males' career maturity was enhanced only if teachers facilitated the intervention. Levels of career indecision and maladaptive decision-making coping patterns were also reduced by the intervention with teacher facilitation. A matched sample of students who did the intervention exhibited significantly better outcomes than those doing the generic vocational course. The long term impact of the intervention was found to be generally beneficial, although some gains were not maintained 12 weeks later. Students' career decision-making self-efficacy and their resoluteness toward decision-making were not affected by the intervention. The research findings led to an appeal for the realignment of focus in career education. This has implications for career education curriculum development in Australia, which needs to shift from its ad hoc, information giving approach, to more comprehensive, long-term, and intensive programming. Career education that enhances the personal skills students need to meet the demands of the world of work in the twenty-first century is required. Career process skills are of paramount importance. Specialist training for career guidance officers is also recommended and more research incorporating theory and practice is advocated.

My study is of the provision of career education, health education, personal development and student development programmes for students from Years 7 to 10 in ACT high schools. My purpose was to identify why these programmes are not available to all students and what can be done to make them available. The methods I used were an examination of a longitudinal case study of "Bellbird" High School in parallel with a survey of the current system perspective. Although the study focuses on the ACT in Australia, reference is made to the international literature, as well as local, regarding the attitudes of students, parents and teachers to career education, health education, personal development and student development programmes; data collection and interpretation; and the implementation of change. I have used data from three different survey instruments administered at "Bellbird" High School, at five year intervals, in 1978/79, 1984 and 1989. I have used another instrument at system level twice, in two consecutive years, in 1988 and 1989. Each of the instruments was developed for a specific purpose and not for gathering data for this study. All three surveys at "Bellbird" High School were designed to determine the attitudes of students, parents and teachers to aspects of the curriculum. They provided both quantitative and qualitative data. Basically, I have compared the 1979 and 1989 numerical data, and used the 1984 material for confirmation of significant issues. In addition to using qualitative data from these three instruments, I have also used comments from curriculum committee and School Board documents and evaluation reports from the Living Skills Programme. At system level, a questionnaire was designed to gather data about the provision of career education and health education in high schools in the ACT. This instrument, included questions about barriers to these programmes and strategies for overcoming the barriers. The findings were distributed to the schools. The procedure was based on the 'Research, Development and Diffusion' model. People associated with the successful implementation of the programmes under investigation were interviewed to find out what barriers they had faced, how they overcame them and what suggestions they had for overcoming other baniers to these programmes. Using the data CO-jointly with the literature and my own knowledge of cumculum implementation, I have proposed an action plan for "Bellbird" High School to extend the provision of its student development programme to all students. In conclusion, the suitability of the proposed action plan for use in other ACT high schools is appraised and general principles for the system are drawn out.

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva betydelsen av studie- och yrkesvägledande aktiviteter med barn i åldrarna sju till tolv år. Kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med sex examinerade studie- och yrkesvägledare som bedriver studie- och yrkesvägledningsverksamhet med barn i grundskolans år 1-6 eller fungerar som stöd till pedagoger som arbetar med studie- och yrkesorienterande verksamhet med barn i dessa åldrar. Resultatet visade att intervjupersonerna anser att arbetet måste påbörjas tidigt, helst redan i grundskolans första år, för att målen så som de skrivs fram i de nationella styrdokumenten ska kunna uppnås. De förutsättningar intervjupersonerna menade krävs för att tidig vägledning ska kunna bedrivas är av såväl strukturell som av individuell art. Slutsatsen som drogs var att studie- och yrkesvägledande aktiviteter som påbörjas i grundskolans tidigare år och som följer elevernas kognitiva utveckling kan medverka till att eleverna ökar sina förutsättningar att göra väl underbyggda val i framtiden. / The main purpose of this study was to describe the importance of educational and vocational guidance activities for children, seven to twelve years old. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six guidance counselors engaged in this type of activities or counselors that provides support to educators working with these matters. The result showed that the respondents believe that the work must be started early preferably already the first year in primary school to achieve the objectives of the national steering documents. The conditions interviewees felt necessary for the early guidance to be conducted are both individual and structural, such as economical factors. Conclusion drawn was that educational and vocational guidance activities that start in primary school and follows students' cognitive development can help the students increase their ability to make informed choices in the future.

The objective of the study was to determine the impact of a train-the-trainer career education programme on educators and black grade eleven learners in the Ekurhuleni districts of Gauteng. The context of career education in South Africa is such that learners have little exposure to career information and planning. This is a result of an education system which historically has placed little emphasis on the preparation of learners for the world of work. In the past little or no career guidance was conducted in black schools. To overcome this dilemma a train-the-trainer career education programme was developed and implemented with educators in the Ekurhuleni district. The results showed that educators felt empowered by the programme and that it provided them with resources and information. The impact on the learners in terms of the programme was achieved by means of a pre- and post-test on the Career Development Questionnaire (CDQ). A convenience sample of grade eleven learners (n = 5 1) in the Ekurhuleni East district of Gauteng was taken. The results indicate that the learner's career maturity scores increased after their exposure to the programme. This research serves as a model for the development and implementation of a train the trainer career education programme and demonstrates how an action-oriented research design can empower educators in the implementation of such a programme. The study also highlights the importance of providing adequate resources as part of career education intervention in the South Africa context. Recommendations for organisations and future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

The objective of the study was to determine the impact of a train-the-trainer career education programme on educators and black grade eleven learners in the Ekurhuleni districts of Gauteng. The context of career education in South Africa is such that learners have little exposure to career information and planning. This is a result of an education system which historically has placed little emphasis on the preparation of learners for the world of work. In the past little or no career guidance was conducted in black schools. To overcome this dilemma a train-the-trainer career education programme was developed and implemented with educators in the Ekurhuleni district. The results showed that educators felt empowered by the programme and that it provided them with resources and information. The impact on the learners in terms of the programme was achieved by means of a pre- and post-test on the Career Development Questionnaire (CDQ). A convenience sample of grade eleven learners (n = 5 1) in the Ekurhuleni East district of Gauteng was taken. The results indicate that the learner's career maturity scores increased after their exposure to the programme. This research serves as a model for the development and implementation of a train the trainer career education programme and demonstrates how an action-oriented research design can empower educators in the implementation of such a programme. The study also highlights the importance of providing adequate resources as part of career education intervention in the South Africa context. Recommendations for organisations and future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

This study was an exploration of the professional identities of secondary school mid-career art educators through arts-based educational research [ABER]. The aim of this research was to gain understandings of mid-career art educators’ perceptions of their professional identities. Inspired by my personal experiences as an art educator, this study engaged other art educators to visualise their professional identities, as secondary mid-career art educators in England, and contribute new perspectives to the research community. Theoretically, this study is aligned with the writings of Dewey (1934, 1944), Deleuze and Guattari (1987, 1994). Deleuze and Guattari’s post-structural concept of the rhizome formed the basis for the development of the ideas associated with identity. As an assemblage, the rhizome is a complex system based on non-linear, reactionary growth patterns. The non-linear growth of the rhizome is facilitated by the activation of the in-between. As such, the rhizome connects to a view of identity as an unstable, flexible and fragmented entity that is in a constant state of becoming (Bauman, 2000). Dewey’s pragmatism was connected with Deleuzian post-structural theory through the writings of Semetsky (2006). Dewey (1944) and Greene’s (1973, 2003) writings associated with democratic education and artistic development connected these theoretical considerations with constructivism, the arts and education. Sachs’ (2003) writing on progressive and bureaucratic education provided a framework for the discussion of professionalism and professional identities. As a contribution to ABER this study was based on a/r/tography (Springgay et al., 2008) as a methodology and actively integrated image and text to the data collection and data analysis. Collage was used as the main arts-based method to develop responses from the participants and to visualise the participant data. This research asked mid-career art educators with busy lives and demanding occupations to consider who they are and express their views through art. These images of identities reflected the complex in-between-ness of professionalism in education.

90 f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-05-06T16:05:07Z No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas3.pdf: 1550997 bytes, checksum: 58c8d8d713acf79f4d0b268d006ad8e0 (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas2.pdf: 400924 bytes, checksum: e7d4a87bef7f64a3ceff535711f69bce (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas1.pdf: 7639130 bytes, checksum: 4df2962bf2b41431c9b2daaee8500f3c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora Lopes(silopes@ufba.br) on 2013-06-10T20:06:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas3.pdf: 1550997 bytes, checksum: 58c8d8d713acf79f4d0b268d006ad8e0 (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas2.pdf: 400924 bytes, checksum: e7d4a87bef7f64a3ceff535711f69bce (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas1.pdf: 7639130 bytes, checksum: 4df2962bf2b41431c9b2daaee8500f3c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-10T20:06:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas3.pdf: 1550997 bytes, checksum: 58c8d8d713acf79f4d0b268d006ad8e0 (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas2.pdf: 400924 bytes, checksum: e7d4a87bef7f64a3ceff535711f69bce (MD5) Dissertacao_Rita de Cacia Chagas1.pdf: 7639130 bytes, checksum: 4df2962bf2b41431c9b2daaee8500f3c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo contribuir para reflexão acerca do papel do currículo na relação escola e mundo do trabalho, mais especificamente o lugar da práxis no currículo da chamada Pedagogia da Alternância (PA). De natureza etnográfica e com um viés multirreferencial, partiu-se do conceito de “espaço de aprendizagem”, buscando compreender a trama que envolve a realidade cotidiana dos sujeitos trabalhadores do campo, mas que necessitam da escola como alternativa e um direito para uma formação ampliada. Tendo como pano de fundo as escolas famílias agrícolas, recolheram-se, nesta pesquisa, alguns conteúdos simbólicos e representativos da experiência dos sujeitos envolvidos nesta trama, ou seja, alternantes, monitores, familiares e membros da comunidade, tanto na dimensão do trabalho do campo enquanto atividade humana, quanto na dimensão escolar, percebendo-se a emergência dos conflitos e das expectativas geradas. Pautada, assim, numa ética solidária em seu processo educativo-formativo, as escolas famílias agrícolas formam, então, jovens cidadãos, tendo no currículo diferenciado, ou seja, voltado para as demandas dos trabalhadores do campo, um dos seus pilares constitutivos. / Salvador

This study aimed at exploring the grade nine learners' experience of career counselling at school in order to determine their ability to make informed subject and career choices. The literature review explored career education programmes and the changing world of work in South Africa. The importance of knowledge about career possibilities, personal values, personality traits and individual interests and abilities was highlighted. Qualitative research involved grade nine learners and Life Orientation teachers in individual and focus group interviews. Data analysis led to the following conclusions: Life Orientation teachers are not adequately informed about the purpose and aim of the career counselling process. Most teachers do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to support learners to make informed subject and career choices. Career counselling in grade nine does not meet the needs of the learners. / Educational Studies / M. Ed.(Psychology of education)