Historically the process of career development was thought of as occurring in adolescence and adulthood; however, the renewed emphasis on lifelong career development has led to a greater focus on the career developmental stage of childhood. The present research focused on the development and trialling of a research-based computerised career exploration tool, Growing-up: Children Building Careers™ (GCBC™) that can be used for early intervention in children‘s career development. The integration of developmental considerations within a career developmental context is of paramount importance, considering that child and career developmental theories share certain basic foundational principles such as the dual recognition of identifiable life stages and the resolution or accomplishment of associated tasks. The focus of the research is to provide access to a research-based tool that can assist learners with developing age appropriate career developmental skills. As the overview of education policy and existing programs will show, there are challenges in providing access to and improving the nature, level, and quality of career development services. Gaps in access to career development learning are particularly evident at the elementary education level. Furthermore it is clear that learners need to be at the centre of a radical rethink of careers services within a lifelong learning framework in order to ensure access to navigational tools throughout a lifetime of work and study transitions. Digital environments, such as the GCBC™, are tools that broaden and extend learning possibilities for children and appropriately designed digital environments can provide a vehicle that can take children further than they might travel unassisted. The research is divided into five phases and includes eight to ten year old children as participants. Phase one focused on the program design and pilot study (ensuring content validity and age-appropriate language use), while phases two to five focused on the fieldwork (i.e., pre –test, program exposure, post-test, and focus group discussions). The researcher made use of a mixed research design that combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The total sample consisted of 146 children between the ages of eight to ten years old. The control group had 72 children and the experimental group 74 children with a mean age of 8.74 years (SD = 0.63) for the total sample. The quantitative data collection entailed a pre-and post-test design with learners‘ career development measured with the Childhood Career Development Scale (CCDS) and their career awareness with the Revised Career Awareness Survey (RCAS). Qualitative data was collected in the form of two focus group discussions, which included a small sample of children from the experimental group, as well as insights gained from educators following the GCBC™ fieldwork. The quantitative statistical analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics which allowed the researcher to not only describe the research findings, but to confirm the effectiveness of the GCBC™ as an intentional career development learning program. Furthermore, the responses of the children and educators who participated in or witnessed the facilitation of the GCBC™ provided support for the GCBC™ as a meaningful career learning experience which can be successfully implemented in educational settings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9947 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Crause, Ewald |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DPhil |
| Format | xxviii, 530 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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