implications of career education for science and mathematics teacher education

Implications of Career Education for Science andMathematics Teacher Education

Ove W. JensenElementary EducationAuburn University

Auburn, Alabama 36830

Career education has attracted the attention and interest of a largesegment of society. This interest seems to be increasing and is ofa magnitude to bring about changes in the curriculum at all levels.These pressures, however ill-defined and varied at this time, willresult in a mandate for teacher education institutions to prepare teacherswho have expertise in this area. Clearly, the teacher educationinstitution must do something: just what they should do is not quiteso obvious.Any consideration of that which can and should be done must

stem from a number of assumptions. For the purposes of thisdiscussion, these assumptions are:

1. The concept of "work" and "career" are defined in their broadest sense andare not merely occupational in nature.

2. The "work ethic" is still a viable concept and is desirable in today’s society.3. Career education will not be dealt with in special classes. Instead, it will be

a part of every subject area and each mathematics and science teacher willbe responsible for relating these areas to the "world of work."

4. Mathematics and science teacher educators will be responsible for career educationcurriculum and methods in their areas and cannot depend on a general coursein career education.

5. Competency based teacher education is a desirable practice and has a placein the preparation of teachers for career education.

The five assumptions are each highly debatable. Many definitionsof "career education" and "work" are in use but a trend is definitelyvisible today toward a broad interpretation. This interpretation viewsa career as the totality of work done in a lifetime and views workas any effort toward producing benefits for self and society. Anydefinition that attempts to restrict and move toward a strictly occupa-tional emphasis is going to damage the entire career education move-ment.The greater proportion of our society still accepts the second

assumption, however some increasingly vocal elements are questioningthis heretofore dominant life style. The future of the "work ethic"will depend on developments of the next few years. But viewed underthe broad interpretation of work, it seems to be interrelated withthe maintenance of society as we know it.The third and fourth assumptions are related and together represent

the viewpoint that career education will be a fundamental concern

330

Career Education and Teacher Education 331

in planning curriculum for all subject areas at all age levels. Thesuccess of a program in career education will depend, to a greatextent, on adherence to these two points. A separate course or programin career education will lack impact and reach fewer students andthus fall far short of its objectives. Obviously, if curriculum in theschools is to be structured in accordance with the ideas expressedin assumptions three and four, teacher preparation curricula mustbe parallel, with science and mathematics educators preparing teachersto work with the objectives of career education in these areas.The fifth assumption could be debated at great length. Teacher

preparation personnel seem to be evenly divided in their support orrejection of a competency based approach to teacher education. Thereal objective of this assumption is to convey a belief that thereare some basic, identifiable and observable competencies involvedin teaching in the area of career education. These competencies canbe identified, learning activities prescribed and teacher performanceobserved and evaluated. If this cannot be accomplished, probabilitiesfor success of the program are few.

PARAMETERS OF THE PROGRAM

For what sort of program are we preparing teachers? The awareness-exploration-preparation continuum seems to be consistent with funda-mental curriculum planning in this area. Career awareness is theconcern of the elementary school, exploration is the task of the juniorhigh school (7-9), and preparation begins in the senior high school.Several conceptualizations of career education also include an exten-sion of this continuum that features career entrance, assessment, andrecycling.What are the implications for teacher educators? The three basic

components can generate a series of areas of responsibilities whichin turn can be translated into teaching competencies. Awareness, forour purposes, can be expressed as: (a) self concept or awarenessof self; (b) educational awareness or the role of education in a person’slife; (c) awareness of work, including an understanding of the impor-tance and the role of work in society; (d) decision making skills;and (e) a knowledge of careers and their interrelationships andinterdependencies.The exploration component is not quite as easy to break into areas.

Actually, the same areas continue into this phase, with slight modifica-tion. For example, awareness type objectives now move toward ahigher order, such as understanding. Self awareness strives towardself identity. This exploratory phase demands an even more active

332 School Science and Mathematics

participation on the part of the student and therefore a wider repetoireof teaching strategies of the teacher. In the senior high school, thepreparation program contains these previously identified areas butthe traditional academic subject organization implies a need for theteacher to be able to relate his specialty to several career areas.Teachers also will need to serve in a counseling role to students whoare considering careers directly related to his subject area or to onewhich draws heavily upon its content.

ELEMENTARY TEACHER PREPARATION

Elementary school teachers have some advantages over secondaryteachers in that they traditionally have responsibilities for all or mostareas of the curriculum. If this is true in a school, the insertionof the career education curriculum will be facilitated. Elementaryteachers, particularly those who teach primary children, seldom feelthe need to categorize a topic as science, mathematics, or languagearts. This advantage can easily be lost at the teacher preparationlevel. Clearly, this situation points to the need for teams of teachereducators as opposed to separate method course in each academicarea. Elementary teacher education programs can no longer afforda cafeteria style array of unrelated professional courses. These coursesmust be welded into a meaningful whole, with the mathematics andscience teacher educators working with representatives of other areasto create a unified program. We expect elementary teachers to workwith children in programs which combine and cut across subject matterlines, therefore the same behavior must be modeled at the teacherpreparation level.

Let us begin the discussion of specific topics in elementary teacherpreparation with the fifth category; a knowledge of careers and theirinterrelationships and interdependencies. This is a good topic withwhich to begin because it is a general area that cuts across manysubject matter lines but has specific implications for the mathematicsand science educator.The first teacher competency that arises is at the basic knowledge

level. The teacher must have adequate background information aboutcareers and have knowledge of a basic framework which places thismaterial in an understandable format. In this case, the fifteen careerclusters identified by the United States Office of Education will serveas a valuable vehicle. They are:

Agriculture-Business and Natural ResourcesBusiness and OfficeConstructionEnvironmental Control


HealthManufacturingMarine SciencePublic ServiceCommunications and MediaConsumer and HomemakingFine ArtsHospitality and RecreationMarketing and DistributionPersonal ServicesTransportation

The use of these clusters .will provide a format for structuring acertain amount of the content of elementary career education. Anothercompetency needed by elementary teachers is that of planning instruc-tion in the use of the "strand approach" to plan and sequenceinstruction. The "strand approach," as described by the NationalPark Service materials, provide a flexible vehicle for the study ofany of the natural and social sciences. The application of this methodto career education is particularly promising. The strands are: varietyand similarity; pattern; interaction and interdependence; continuityand change; and adaptation.

Variety and similarity, the first strand, helps the student sort outthe wide environment of careers. He derives a simple classificationscheme by noting similarities in careers. This causes him to lookat and investigate likeness and differences among the career clustersand in their various functions and roles in society.Once the student has been led to classify, patterns emerge. These

patterns involve people, schedules, organizational aspects, and otherparts of the working world. As patterns are identified, "interactionand interdependence" becomes important. Obviously, no career existsin isolation. As a worker in any career field, a person is constantlyinteracting with other workers who are members of the same ordifferent career fields. These people depend on each other in orderto do their jobs and live as a member of a social system.As people involved in careers interact, they change all around them.

Today, a study of "continuity and change" in careers is more importantthan ever before. If a student doesn’t understand and appreciate thesignificance of "change" in today’s society, he will most likely bea very unhappy individual.As he studies changes in careers, he becomes aware of the last

of our strands, "adaptation." A career area constantly undergoeschanges and adapts to fit into a new pattern of existence. The persons


who best understand this phenomena of career adaptation will bethe happiest, most successful people in our society.

Hopefully, the strand approach will appeal to science educators.It has its roots in science education but is equally applicable to thesocial sciences. Career education is, to a great extent, a fusion ofsubject areas, therefore a planning vehicle that is useful across avariety of areas, such as the "strands approach," is necessary andappropriate.Another must for science educators is a greater emphasis on process.

Content is important, but if science is to be of the greatest use tothe largest number of students and demonstrate its career relevance,process must be accentuated. Therefore, teacher education must focusto a greater extent on enabling teachers to teach the basic scienceprocesses and relate them to the career clusters. Experience has shownthat teachers will neglect process and stress content in science iftheir method and materials classes fail to convince them of the necessityfor balance in the curriculum.A combination of the process approach and the strand approach

is a feasible and promising practice for the implementation of careerorientated science and mathematics. A quick look at the titles ofthe clusters reveals the importance of career education for scienceeducators and the inclusion of a process approach clearly shows aneed for the involvement of mathematics teachers. Many of the basicscience processes are mathematical in nature, regardless of whoselist of processes is considered. Inclusion of career related activitiesinvolving these mathematical processes will aid in answering one ofthe most pressing and embarrassing problems for the modern mathe-matics curriculum, that of providing relevant application situations.Knowledge of the career areas is the most obvious area of interest,

however the other areas of concern, such as self concept, have justas many implications for the teacher educator. Science and mathematicsteacher educators have generally ignored the area of self concept.Now, teacher competency programs, along with career education,have brought it to our attention that we must include objectives inthis area.The first general teacher competency is that of demonstrating an

understanding of self concept theory and its implications for teacherbehavior. Specifically, the teacher needs to define and describepersonal meanings for the term "self concept," the process by whichself concept is formed, including the role of significant others, therelationship of self concept to behavior, the measurement of selfconcept, perception selection, and the fully functioning self. Thesesound more like foundations of education material, but the curriculumprofessor will need to participate in the teaching. After this background,


the teacher needs application competencies, such as using self concepttheory in creating opportunities for the positive development of selfconcept for children and in the teacher’s personal and professionaldevelopment. Finally, the teacher needs to help children see themselvesin their multiple roles, family member, friend, and as a potentialworker in several career areas.

Educational awareness presents problems of a somewhat differentnature, that of teacher attitude. Traditionally, they have used authorityto justify the study of any particular topic to their students. Today,teachers are finding it necessary to "sell" their subject matter tochildren. A really effective career education program will make the"sale" easier, by giving many children motivation that otherwise wouldbe lacking. Teacher competencies in this area involve a knowledgeof educational pre-requisites for the career fields and the ability torelate these to student interests and to the student’s life in general.

Closely related to the teacher competencies already mentioned,especially to those of the "knowledge of careers and their interrela-tionships," are the ones involved in "awareness of work." One vitalstrategy for this area is that of simulation. Several easy to usesimulations are available for these purposes and teachers need tohave the selection and implement competencies for this strategy.Simulations appear to be most effective when used in situations suchas this, where there is great emphasis on the affective domain.The last area for discussion is that of decision making. At the

elementary level, the emphasis is on skill in making decisions andnot on making any career choices. This relates extremely well toscience education because of its similarity to the scientific method.The teacher needs to be trained to help the child set up decisionmaking experiences and facilitate his course through the steps ofthe problem solving method. Several slightly different statements ofthe steps are available, but the following are particularly applicableto career education.

1. Identify and understand the nature of the problem.2. Define the problem and state the goal.3. Determine the alternative courses of action and their possible consequences.4. Develop appropriate criteria for choosing among alternatives.5. Choose and implement a course of action.6. Receive feedback as to the success or failure of the decision.

The sixth step is often ignored and is really the most importantin many ways. Simulation offers at least a partial answer to thisproblem.

SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER PREPARATION

Secondary school teachers really need to acquire all the competencies


that have previously been mentioned for the elementary schoolteachers. They also need to have other abilities that are unique totheir secondary school programs. These requirements are usually tobe accomplished in less time than most elementary teacher trainingprograms devote to professional courses. Clearly, science and mathe-matics teacher educators have a difficult task ahead of them in preparingteachers to include career education in their classes at the secondaryschool level.The prospective secondary school teacher is not going to be able

to study all the topics related to career education and get muchaccomplished in other directions. Methods and materials instructorsmust choose those competencies deemed most vital. Which are they?Before moving on to the unique aspects of the secondary programit is appropriate to name several.

First, because our emphasis is on mathematics and science education,the process approach is still a must. Just because these students aremajoring or minoring in science or mathematics education, trainingpersonnel cannot assume competence in or commitment to the processapproach. The strand approach is still applicable at this level andselected career clusters should be explored in greater depth. Thenext most important area for mathematics and science is that of decisionmaking. This is a necessity at all levels. Finally, the secondary scienceteacher will have to take a good hard look at the role of educationalawareness as related to his subject area and career education. Neces-sarily, foundations of education courses must provide much of theinput for self concept and other related areas.What competencies are unique to the exploratory phase of career

education which ordinarily occurs at the junior high school level?Most areas of concern in the elementary school continue to beimportant, but a greater variety of teaching strategies is indicated.These strategies are useful in other phases of the science and mathe-matics curriculum but are often ignored. Simulation has been mentionedseveral times in connection with the elementary school, but thesecondary teacher needs more skill to handle the more sophisticatedexamples available for use at this level. Also, the debriefing stageof simulation becomes more complex as it gains potential with theincreasing maturity of the participant. Other active strategies thatmust be used with greater skill at this level are: the student project,the field trip, and the on-site lesson. These strategies, without properplanning and execution, are largely a waste of time, but hold muchpotential for an exploratory type program. An increased tolerancefor open ended types of activities is required, and this means practiceunder supervision at the preparatory level.During the senior high school years, students should already be


aware of the world of work and will still be interested in careerexploration, but their interest begins to zero in on one or severalareas. As their interest in career preparation increases, the counselingrole of the teacher becomes more pronounced. The teacher needsa thorough knowledge of the career areas directly related to his specialtyand, in the case of the mathematics teacher, needs to know manyof the areas for which his subject is a supporting or tool area. Teachershave long been guilty of encouraging students unrealistically. The"you can do anything you want to do" approach is often more harmfulthan helpful. High school teachers will not have received counselortraining, therefore the methods instructor must give them practicein using a simple counseling tool. The one best suited is the decisionmaking-problem solving technique. Helping the senior high studentto define and weigh the alternatives as realistically as possible isthe heart of career education for most high school teachers.The fate of career education is in the hands of the teacher preparation

institutions. Teachers do a good job with that which they are welltrained and happy about doing. Teacher preparation personnel arein the best position to facilitate the insertion of career education.With this opportunity goes an awesome responsibility. Prospectiveteachers model the teaching behavior of their instructors to a greaterextent than they absorb the content of the method and materialsclass. The obvious implication is a need for better career educationtechniques at the teacher preparation level.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alabama State Department of Education. Career Guidance Handbook.DEIULIO, A. M. and J. M. YOUNG. "Career Education in the Elementary School,*’ Phi

Delta Kappan, LIV, No. 6 (February 1973), 378-80.HOBBS, H. J. and J. KRETSCHMANN. A Teacher Guide to Horseshoe Bend. (June 1971).PETERSON, M. "Career Education: Implications for the Elementary School Curriculum."Reading and Career Education, Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association,1975.

TODD, P. "The Teacher as a Diagnostician: Self Concept," Auburn, Alabama: AuburnUniversity, 1973 (Mimeographed)

Make Plans Now to Attendthe 1976 Annual SSMA Convention

Toledo, Ohio-November 11-13, 1976

implications of career education for science and mathematics teacher education

Documents