the effectiveness of a career education program to...
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NAME OF AUTHOR/NOM DE L ' A U 7 E U H - - Jam-es-A. TOPPING --- - - - -1- -.
T I T L E 01 THLSIS/TITRC UE LA tii is^ -- .- The, Effec t iveness of a Caregr- Education Programs _ _ _ - -
t o Inc rease - - Career - - - - Maturi ty - - and School Sentiment . -- -
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NL-339 (Rev. 8/80)
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INCREASE CAREER MATURITY AND ~.
SCHOOL SENTIMENT ~
James A. ,!Copping
B .A . , Simon ~ r a s e l u n i v e r s i t y 1972 a
T'HE REQUIREMENT6 FOR THE DEGREE OF I ' I
MASTER OF &TS (EDUCATION)
i n t h e Facul ty .
og '.. -
Education
@ James A. Topping 1979 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
J u l y 1979
9 A l l r i g h t s r e se rved . This - - work m a r n o t b e - -- -- r)
reproduc3ed-rii wKole3r - in p a r t , by photocopy
* o r o t h e r means, without permission of t h e au thor . - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Name:
Degree : .
Title of ~hes-2s:
Exaqainbg C m f t t ee
Master of Arts @ducat$on)
I
Stu Gardner . Faculty Associate Faculty of Education Simon Fraser Univerdty External Examiner
The Effectfveness of a Career ducat ion Program to Increase Career Maturity and School Sentfment
Jack Marttn
Philip H . ~ i n n e Senf or Supervisor
Ronald W. Mam Assistant Professor
Date approved , \4fq-07 -bdC
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by me or. t he Dean of Graduate S tud ie s . It is understood t h a t copylng
o r pub l i ca t ion of t h i s t h e s i s f o r f i n a n c i a l ga in s h a l l n o t be allowed
without my w r i t ten permission. ' - .
Title of T h e e i s l ~ i s s e r t a t i o n :
The Effect iveness of a s Career Ed6cationm Program t o Inc rease , .
Career Maturity and School Sentiment
f -
' , Author :
( s igna tu re ) .
James A. TOPPING
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Career education is often cited as a means to decrease
unemployment . d increase job satisfaction. This is C . ekpecially thd case in the high school *context where much of
the responsibility rests for implementing career education
, programs. The development and maintenance of career education -
has only limited empirica.1 support, however. A ,
thorough search of'the literature revealed about as many 3 .
studies which - substantiated the effectiveness of career educa- 1
,tion as those* which did not.
- This study assessed the effectiveness of a career education program that focused on changing the ca;eer maturity
and school sentiment of grade 10 students. The career
education program was Creating a Career, a publication of \
Canada Manpower And Immigration. This program is widely used
throughout Canada, though no reports of validation studies . regarding its effectiveness could be -found. A pretest-posttest
design was used to measure the effects across randomly assigned
groups. Two of these groups received the career education
program, one received,a developmensal guidance program, which
served as a placebo comparison, and one was a no-treatm~nt
control - group. Within - each - - group, some students also part- - - -- -- - - - -
Using analysis of variance, a statistically' signfficant
iii d
. ' *
u I
-
- - - - 6.
- - -
w d k f k m m ~ n a s - ~ r t h e p r e ~ e ~ e _ o ~ Career -Maturityppp- ppp
Inventory Attitude scale showing that students who volun-
- , teered for work experience already had a more mature attitude
toward work than those who did not volunteer. Students
participating in the work experience program also scored ---- --
significantly higher on the Career Maturity Inventoyy I
Competence Test - ? x u b l e ~ ~ o ~ v i n ~ subscale on both &he- pretes t ' -
. and posttest. Thus, students who volunteered for work exper- 1
ience were more knowledgeable about the worldof work before
and after exposure to either the'career education, placebo or
control conditions.
. Matched-group t tests comparing pretest and pos ttest. scores
on all dependent variables within.each group showed only one
statistically significant change in which the career education I
group with work experience declined on the Career Maturity
Inventory Competence Test Self-Appraisal subscale. Student ev-
aluation of the program and the instructor, and student 1 * \
perceptions of the program's effectiveness also was "assessed.
No significant differences were found on these variables across
- treatments. The absence of'effects attributable to the carLer education'
program leads one to question its effectiveness for enhancing - p- - --- - - - - - - - p p --
student's 'career maturity or school sentiment, and the basis -- - - - - - - - - - --
for it3 widesjreiiX GiGiii Fch56lC SiggeiZz~s f i r further
-
- - - - -
research, especially the need for rigorous longitudinal
studies of career education programs, are presented.
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APPROVAL PAGE
ABSTRACT . . LIST OF TABLES
FIGURES
viii
LIST OF
INTRODUCTION
Occupational Choice Theory . vocational Development Thkory
. . . . . . . Career Education Research on the Effectiveness of
. . . . . . . Education Programs Overview of Creating a Career .
Career . . . .
Choice of ~opulation for Operational Statement of
Study . the Hypotheses
-
METHOD . . . . . . . Subjects and Setting Treatment . . . Administration . . .
RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . Missinn Data
~eliabilit~ of Dependent . . . Instructor Effect Variables Effectiveness of the Treatment
. . . . Sumnary of Results ESCtFSSIION A P I D ~ O ~ U S r n -- F1 - . . . . . g--. Theoretical Implications . Classroom Implications . .
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a APPENDICES A GUIDANCX PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
SCHOOL SENTIMENT INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 STUDENT EVALUATION SCALE . . . . . . . . . . . 86
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
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TABLE
V I I I
. . . . . . Group Treatments and Sample Sizes 28 Internal Consistency Reliabili ty Coefficients Dependentvariables . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 t Tests Examining Differences Between Instructors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
- - - - - - - A Means- andu-Sta~&rcf D e ~ i a ~ i o n s on -Pretestp . . . . . . . . and Posttest CMI Self-Appraisal 41
Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest . . . and Posttest (241 Occupational Information 42 - - - - - - - - - - -
Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest . . . . . . . . and Posttest CMI Goal Selection . 4 3
Means and ~ t i d a r d Deviations on Pretest . . . . . . . . . . . and Posttest CXI Planning 44
Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest and Posttest CMI Problem Solving . 45 Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest
-- . . . . . . . . and P o s t t e s t - a Attitube Scale 46 Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and Posttest SSI 47 Means and Standard Deviations SEVS . 48 Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest CMI Self-Appraisal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 k a l y s i s of Variance on Pretest and Posttest CMI Occupational Information . . . . . . . . 51 Analysis of ~ i r i a n c e on Pretest and Posttest CMI Goal Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
~
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest -- - -53 -- -- --- 7-, ,-v.- . . . . . . . . . . .
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest CMI Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
v i i i
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% . XVII Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest - e - - escale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , 33 XVIII Analysis of Variance on pretest and Posttest
SSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 XIX ~nalysis of variance !on detest and posttest -
SEVS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 XX Means, Standard De -2 ations and Matched
t tests on Pretest and Posttest C M I - Competence Test- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
- - -XXI - - - -Me--- S & m k r & Deviat-ions- -Matched - h
7 - -- A -- - - - il t tests on Pretbeot and Postte t CMI ' \ Attitude Scale . .d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
XXII Means, Standard Deviations and Matched 2
- - - - - &ass ts on P r e t c ? ~ + d 2 o s teest S S X A- +- A . -a - 62 -- -- . XXIII Tukey HSD Procedure SSI . . . . . . . . . . 63
XXIV Tukey HSD Procedure SEVS . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
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LIST OF FIGURES @
F i g u e
2 Group Interactiohe'on the SSI Posttest . . . >. - -
and Time Interaction on the SSI . . -. Group
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IPJTRODUCTI ON -
Career education recently has been a popular topic i n
newspapers and other mass media and concurrently it has gener-
ated discussion a t many levels of gove&nt, business and 9
ebsc zt2mrL -e ga~Bd ttg - ~ ~ S ~ ~ - O ~ ~ Z T ~ ~ - ~ - ~ ~ F ~ C i 1 % i axe smooth -cWe r - - \ C development. Currently, career development can be described
as the interact ion of psychological, sociological, economic, - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- -- - -
physical and chance factors t h a t af fec t the work an individual
does during h i s l i f e . It i s expressed by some tha t i f students
were taught how t o plan t he i r careers tha t many problems now
exist ing within the workforce .would be lessened or be elimin- < p -
ated (Crum, 1971; Prediger, Roth , and Noeth, 1974) .
of Vocational a& Technical Educatiqn, expressed t h e i r vocational
edGcatiw goals for the deeade of thh 70's as a concept of ".-/
"life-long career development fo r every person who can prof i t
from such a program" (U.S. Office of Education, 1971, p. I X ) . Crucial t o t h i s plan was the program f l e x i b i l i t y such tha t both
youth and adults would acquire technical, salable s k i l l s along
with education i n "career choices i n making the t rans i t ion from
schoo'f t o work, job advancenknt , and i n making job changes"
(U. S. Office of ~duca&pn, 1971, p. IX) . Career education, 'L
the general label given any e6ucat-ional program based on d
theories of career development, was assigned the major
-
responsibliity for preparing "our more disadvantaged citizenry
. . to move from the frustration of poverty and unemployment through ,
social mobility and to meaningful employment" (U.S. office of
Education, 1971, p. 3).
In 1978, young people between the ages of 15 and 17
accounted for 23.6% of the total unemployment 'figure of the
Canadian population and during 1978, an average of over 426,000 - - - -
young people age. 15 to 24 were-~ernployed, which constituted
46.7% of all unemployed in Canada (Statistics Canada, 1979). b
Although the latter group included many who had completed either- - - - - - -
an academic or vocational high school program, it can' be
concluded that acadedc and technical competency, although
necessary .conditions for 'entrj-%eve1 j , are not sufficient.
Specialists in Manpower offices claim that young people require
tha skills to conduct a job search and, once they have obtained
ewloyinent, to finiction within employer expectation (Department
of Manpower & Immigration, 1977) . '.
The education system represents the strongest common -. -
experience for children in our society. School has become the
place for learning many of the competencies needed to be
accepted as a worthwhile person and become a productive member
of society. Since nearly everyone goes to school, it is
probably t h e . most likely place t.o teach the appropriate skills - - ~ - - ~- - - - -~ ~- -
knowledge foundation. The role of education has correspondingly i
expanded to become the vital institution responsible to meet
-
The theoreticall foundations for career education have
been developed from several disciplines. Valuable input from
the social sciences of anthropology and sociology, from philos-
ophy and from education have contributed to the development,of
two distinct theoretical systems, occupational choice theories
and vocational, development theories.
Each occupation choice theory (eg . trait -factor, Parsons 1909; need-drive, Maslow 1954; occupational psychology, Roe
1956; composite, Hoppock, 1967) holds as a common element that
a person makes an occupational choice at some given point in
their ltfe based on needs for satisfaction and success. If a
good decision is made the individual feels successful and
remains in the occupation. A ba-ddecision results in dis-
P satdhction and the need for another oc&ipational choice. -
Each choice is seen as separate and relatively independent from P
preceding or subsequent choices. Vocational development theories
have as a common focus the view that the individual proceeds ,f *
through a number of different phases or life stages. Theorists
such as Ginzberg (1951), .Holland (1973), Tiedman (19631, and
Super (1957) , gen&a41y believe that the individual makes a
series of choices concerning occupations at various life stages - - -- --
which, as a collection of events, describe their vocational
deveIopment. V ~ t ~ o = l d e ~ l I o ~ t tliusXiGr@s-over tie total
life of the individual and is described by their total life style. -
The individual is not necessarily matched to a 'single "correct1'
-
occupation, and auccesa in many occupatFons ia pcw~i-BLe.
Thq program used in this study, a component of a comprehen-
A i sive vocational guidance program ca d Creating a Career, developed from both occupational choice and vocational
/
1 ment theories (Davison and Tippet t , 1977) . The program was i designed for use with students aged fifteen and up, and can be
+- / - - -
delivered in its entirety within a period of 120 hours or can --+
be taught as separate sections. Thus, it can be taught either /i 1/
as an intensive program or over a longer period 6f time.
The program is composed of a career planning and a job
search section. Exploration, the focw of the former, assists
the students in kdwing themselves and their environment, and
in recognizing both existing m d future opportunities. It also
teacaes practical skills, such as writing a resume and letter
of application, where etudents can apply this knowledge. The
job search section emphasizer and encourages students to take
an active part in choosing a career. Specifically, this section
was designed to encourage young people to choose their work
instead of being choaen by it. Student0 are taught the skills
of locating, collecting and evaluating occupational informat N which the authors claim will enhuncaa student's probability of
entering a career of their choice and maintaining a stable
career development. -
The belief that career education programs should be taught
in the achool system is based on the premise.- that career
educatiog help8 people to make tuitable occupational choice, t
-
to enter the occupation of their choice and to develop a career.
Research both support and refutes this belief. (Kershner et
al. 1975 ; Watts and Jennifer, 197t) . Yet, new programs like Creating a Career have been developed for the school system
and have been used by practitioners without knowledge of the
actual effects these programs have on the attitude and develop-
ment of students.
The intent of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness
of a published career education program taught to grade ten
students at a 500-student junior-senior secondary school in a
suburban community in the metropolitan Vancouver, B.C. area.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of the program to change
students' career maturity as measured by the Career Maturity
Inventory (CMI), and to change student's feelings toward
school as measured by the School, Sentiment Index (SSI) . Several features were incorporated into this study which
differentiate it from work previously done in this area (Davis
1975; Hardie, 1978; Kershner and Blair, 1975;. W i g , Tulloch, -
& Thomad!%75; Travis 1976 ; Watts and Kidd, 1978). Four
classes of junior secondary students were involved for a -
period of three weeks in either the career education program, - a guidance program or a literature program. The students
involved in this study had not previously been involved in-
career education z%ir had a similar pr-ram been taught at - -
-A I 4"
this school prior to the sttidy. Standardized instruments
were used for preteKt and posttest of all four classes.
-
-
-Pr* A could be found
~ - t t s e 8 ~ t 3 r ~
that inc lubd all of
6
6trtme
these factors.
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CHAPTER I1
LITERATURE REVIEW
J Theories of occupational chofce and vocational develop- 1
ment form the foundation on which career education programs
are built. For this reason, the review of related literature
will begin with a synopsis of the work done within these two
theoretical systems concentrating on the recent work of Donald
Super. This chapter then will examine career education programs
general, noting important differences . conclusion, research which examined the effectiveness of career education
programs will be surveyed.
Occupational Choice Theory
Theories of occupational choice have as an important theme
that individuals choose their occupations as a separate and
, distinct event (Ginsberg et a1 . 1951; Parsons, 1909 ; Roe, 1956) . These theories recognize external factors influencing occupa-
tional choice such as early parent-child interactions (Roe, 1957)
biological factors such as place of birth, family discipline
and ordinal position in the family (Roe, 1956) . Occupational choice theories relevant to this study can
be grouped into the following categories: trait and factor
theories, which stress the matching of persons and jobs (Parsons
1909); need-drive theories, which define occupational choice as
a means Tor* s a - t f x & s g needs (Maslow, 1954) ; occupational
psychology (Roe, 1956), which emphasize the influence of early
-
parent-child relationships; and'Hoppock's theory (1967) which - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
is a composite view of other choice theories. ~eneralk~, all B
of these theories state that if a person 'mqkes a good occupa-
tional choice, as measured by the satidfaction of need, success, r
or personal adjustment, then he will find happiness and will . /'
maintain that occupation. On the other hand, if one should
make a poor choice, as evidenced by frustration and anxiety, g
then another choice likely will be made in the hope of improving
on unsatisfactory feelings. Each choice is assued to be made
independently of other choices, and at no 'time is the life span
or age category of the individual considered.
vocational Development Theory
Super's theory of vocational development which emerged
following the work of Ginzberg,. Ginsberg, Axelrod, and Herma
(1951), expblns the origins of vocational decisions quite
differently from occupational choice theory. The vocational
development theorists such as Holland (1959), Super (1957),
Tiedeman (l96l), and Tiedeman and O'Hara. (1963) , placed more
emphasis on the total development of the individual throughout'
the span of life stages or phases. Super's (1978) most recent 2
refinement of his theory of stages of vocational develop&ent
e x e m p l d the life stages one - - passes_ - - through in-these kind -
of theories. Super's theory(1978) has recently been revised - - - -- --
to account for new research findings. It is a concise, well-
organized theory which is easily understood. The main tenets
enwhich the theory is based have :been discussed and questioned
-
over a twenty-year span.
'I'htgr@owth Stage. This stage of vocational development I
is explained as an initial period in which self-concept develops
through identification with important figurks sbch as father,
nmther, teacher and neighbour. This stage has three substages
named fantasy, interest and capacity. Fantasy (ages 4-10) is
where needs are dominant and role playing in fantasy is evidpt.
Examples of the fantasy situation might be children playing
doctor, school or house. This could be a child's initial
introduction to a career. Interest (ages 11-12) is when the
major determinants of aspirations and activities are personal
likes. At this stage a child could be fascinated by rock
music and want to be a rock star or by hockey and desire to be
a professional hockey player. Finally, capacity (ages 13-14)
is demonstrated by a greater display of interest in abilities
in job training. For example, young musicians or hockey players
could be in the capacity substage where they strive to master
the skills necessary to meet this desire.
The Exploration Life Stage. Approximately ages 15 to 24,
are said to be dominated by self examination, role tryouts and
occupational exploration. Crystallization of a career, as
,/ described by Super, usually occurs during the first substage,,
which is usually the time- w$en one makes a tentative vocational
choice and tries it out in'fantasy, discussion, courses in - - -
school and finally in work. Crystallization is when one has gone
through the processes described and ultimately arrives at the
-
end-point of work. The period of adjustment
market or professional training is7named the
transition, which occurs at ages 18-27. The
to the labour
conclusion of
this major stage occurs in the trial substage of 22-24 in which
an appropriate occupation is found.
The Establishment Stage. This stage follows at the approx- .%
4 imate ages of 25 to' 40. The labels used in this category LYL
describe the process an individual is said to experience.
Increased effort is expended in order to develop a relatively (d
permanent position in the chosen occupational field, and in so
doing, the individual enters into the substages of trial and
stabilization at ages 25 to 30 and consolidation and frustra-
tion or advancement at ages 30 to 44.
The Maintenance Life Stage. Ages 45 to 64 are typified
by one holding onto the position in the world of work that he
has strived to develop. I'n this period, some individuals
continue as in the Establishment Stage whereas others feel
unfulfilled, frustrated or stagnated. To describe those who
have not found an appropriate occupation the popular literature
has coined the term "the mid-life crisis".
The Decline Life Stage. The final stage is where physical
and mental powers decline. During the three substages of
ment 71 an, w o r k adV&ity declines and ceases - 1 - r,,
Life Roles. At approximate ages, life roles are de cribed J
J "i by Super (see Figure 1) as the varied parts we assume thro&hout
/"
-
our life stages. The role of child is viewed as the single - - ---
role until one becomes a student at age 5. At age 10 the --
role of child and student are joined by the leisure role,
followed by the citizen ,role at age 15. Age 20 introduces
the role of worker and generally eliminates the student role,
while at age 25 one adds the spouse-homemaker followed by the
parent role at age 27, finally concluding with the pensioner
role. ..
Super (see Figure 1) points out the three major decision 1 \ I,
p o i n ~ ~ one faces in his vocatianal life span- The firs^ major \I
vocqtional decision corresponds to entry into the labour market .
or professional' training and is-during the Exploration Life
Stage. The second major decision occurs during the Maintenance
Life Stage those who are not satisfied with their jobs. And
ultimately one faces retirement, at the Decline Life Stage,
which for many, requires an abrupt alteration of their entire
lifestyle.
The roles gssumed at any one point in time axe one's total
life style at that time. This is depicted on the shaded
portion of Figure 1, Over time, this changes as in the worker
flk701e, which, initially includes most of one's life style but
p u a l l y &comes less important. 4 - -,
Sit~ationalLdetPnnin~ accmding_~a %qer,_atcfnrcars I
he-- -2
that partially determine how easily_ one-moves through life
stages. Remote situational determinants such as social
< structure, historical change, and socio-economic organization I '
-
employment practices, school, community and family affect the
transition. The other set of contributing factors are the
personal determinants of awareness, attitudes, interests, needs-
values, achievement, general and specific aptitudes, and
biological heritage (see Figure 1).
Vocational development theories have become the foundation
on which most recent career education programs are developed. oa
This is a reasonable consequence ~f the belief generally held
by vocational development-theorists . like Osipow (1973), Super -.
(1957.) and Tolbert (1974) that vocational development is a --% ..
longitudinal process which unfolds as one passes
through each vocational life stage. Career education, through - - - -
its effect- on the personal determinants, awareness, attitudes
and interests of individuals, can be looked upon in light of
these theories as an intervention aimed at avoiding malad- *
justment in later. development.
Career Education Programs. Based on the theories of
vocational development these programs are generally implehnented
as either art integrated or curriculum-based model. The inte-
Wapprazch-cm-b-e-described-as an infuskcm-of i d e a s - - --- -
- conceptsr -info~roftm&ski&refev~o- e s e e r - d e v e k p ~ e n t - - --
and are incorporated with the school work in which students are
normally engaged. This model functions best in the school
-
career education topics and curricular pursuits such as
social studies, English, or science.
Curriculum-based programs on the other hand can be
offered in institutions other than the school, such as Manpower -
and Inmigration centers. Although it is difficult within the
school environment to sLi=late certain activities that- .occurL - - - - - - --
0
naturally in the work place, close approximations can be
developed that can'be used in the classroom. Generally this
kind-of program is available as a self-contained package and
usually takes 10 to 15 hours, wh$h can be offered intensively
over a few days or extended over several weeks-or months.
Another strategy employed to increase students' career -. maturity is to place them in a job situation for work-experience.
- -
Some work-experience programs like the Experience-Based Career - - - - -
Education ro ram (McGowan and DeSanctis, 1976) assigned p, ----4---
students to a place of work for one or more days a week through-
out the entire year. At the other end of the work-experience
spectrum there are programs similar to the one incorporated 3
into this study which assign students to a place of work for a
consecutive n-er of days each year. Students in this study
who voldnteered for work-experience were assigned to a job -
- situation ~-&n--~r h e c6=it-F -f* =pee c-6nsecu lVe &a . _ - - - - - - - -
Research on the Effectiveness of &eer Education Programs
* In the last five years many reports have appeared in the
literature describing career education programs and their
-
mectiveness for changingstudentst attitudes and career
maturity. Like ~ardie's 0 9 7 8 1 , most are studies of ahort-tern
interventions using career education programs designed and n
taught by the author. Prirnarily,these pareer education
programs have relied on unpublished mate '.F? ials. Babcock and i,
Kaufmarr (1976) indicate in their study that there is a lack of
A study by Babcock and Kaufman (1976) of the effectiveness
of a career education program to change career maturity showed - -
that students who were involved in a two-hour per week program
scored significantly higher on an adapted version of the
Career bevelopment Inventory than a control group. Limitat ions
to thiystudy-are that students who'signed up for the career d
course w&e given uniuersit; credit a d men and graduate i .,. 1 ,
..- students in the mmse were eliminafed frua the study. ThZs
sampling technique limits the generalizability of its conclusions.
In a siudy of the effectiveness of a short-term counselling
intervention, Flake, Roach and Stenning (1975) u-sed a randomized
control-group, pretest-post;test design. The 37 students part- i
icipating in this three-session program were selected on the
basis of low scores on the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude
and Self -Appraisal scales. Significant differences were found
group showed signLficant gain over control groups. This study
supports CritesT theory that career maturity is a developmenthl
-
counselling. Unfortunately by only using students who scored
low on the prqust one could question its internal validity: on
the grounds of regressiop to the mean, and its generalizability
to the students in general. A
Using a pretest-posttest design to study the effectivenes
of a short-term career education program, Hardie (1978) found
a significant increase in career maturity as measured by the
Career Maturity Inventory among participating students as - opposed to a control group, although the findings in thls study
were not strong. The absence of randomization of the sample, - and dffficulties in replicating the author's idiosyncrati'c
career education program lessen somewhat the value of this
study . Career education topics were integrated into 23 language
arts classes and 25 social studies classes at the grade 10
level in a study by'Jennings .(1976) tp determine the effective-
ness of such a program. At regular intervals each class was
given a one-hour session by a counsellor on some aspect of
career education. Also, each social studies teacher incorpor-
ated specific career education topics into their lessons.
The Career Maturity Inventory was used for posttest of the
on the posttest on all the CMI subscales except the planning
scale, and higher cornpared to the control group on all but the
-
attitude and plmin%' scales . Again, howevera non-randomiza-p tion of the two groups calls the internal validity of the
study into question. Since the control group was a rural school
as opposed to city schools for the experimental group and since
no pretest data was gathered to test for initial equivalence
of the groups, the observehifferences may reflect only
differences already present before the program.
In a study by W i g , Tulloch and Thomas (1975) using a
pretest-posttest design, 240 sixth and eighth grade students 1 d partkfpated fn a career education program. Teachers -
integrated career education topics into the regular curriculum
over the course of one school year. The Career Maturity
Inventory used for pretest and posttest yielded marginally R
significant results due to increased career maturity on only
four of the possible 12 scales. The results for the variables
self-appraisal, goal selection, and problem solving showed no
significant group difference.
-A fiel+&udy of'the original version of Creating A Career
was carried out by Davison & Tippett the basis
this evaluation which studied the instructors and the materials
used, the program Creating A Career was completely revised.
The revised version was used in this study.
consistency across studies and seldom demonstrate the effective-
ness of a career educational program to significantly increase
-
career maturity. The lfterature reveals that some treatments I
are effective on some variables but are not effective on other
sariables. The matter of chance could play a large part in
these studLes in that the right subjects are linked with the
right treatment for part of the time.
Overview of Creating A Career. The career education
program used in this study, exemplary of most programs in this
area, is part of the cbmprehensive vocational guidance program
Creating A Career. Creating a Career was developed by Catherine
Davison and Glen Tippett at the TrainingResearch and
Development Statio Prince Albert, Saskatchewan- for the F' Department of - G p o w e r and Immigration 1977). The program has five published
an instructor's manual, two textbooks,
(Davison and Tippett ,
components which include
a student workbook and
an occupational exploration ki-t . The primary impetus for the development of Creating a
Career came from Bretoq's study of "Social and Academic Factors
in the Career Decision of Canadian Youth" (Breton, 1972).
Breton found that over 30% of Canadian high school students
had no occupational preference and many more had inappropriate
or unrealistic career goals. These findings prompted a study
by the Training Research and Devdupntent Station te ideat if g
factors that appeared to inhibi t vocational decision making
(Vocatfonal Counselling., 1973). Three factors were fsolated:
lack of knowledge of self, lack of knowledge of the world
of work and lack of decision-making skills. These factors
-
b
were incorporated into the framework of the program Creating a
Career.
Chapter
dealing with
one of Creating a Career is a general overview 2 c I -
the definition of important terms, describing
career planning and its importance to the individual, outlining
career planning and explaining what it involves. Chapter two -
explains the nature and meaning of work emphasizing the
importance of meeting one's personal needs such as wages,
security, working conditions, and positive human relationships. -
Decision making, the main concept of chapter three, explores
the nature and difficulties encountered in t l h process.
Chapter four involves students in occupational exploration and
strategies which facilitate occupational choice. Situational
and personal determinants, the focus of chapter five, engage
students in exploring wha they are, what has shaped their lives,
what has affected their' personality (biological and environmental /--
i factors) and what roles they assume. Students investigate - their aptitudes, abilities Bn d interests in chapter six using
.'+---v /
a lengthy test procedure which could take from two to six hours.
A method for studying occupations and brainstorming every
possible occupationai requirement and opportunity is presented
in chapter seven, while locati_ngpt_his occupational information
is experienced in chapter eight. Finally the students are
involved in evaluating and assessing their own progress in h e
last chapter.
From the 10 chapters which make up the Career Planning - ,
-
-
20
sectton, the first nhre chapeers werepselec3te8 For use Tn-tms
study. These deal riith 'ideas, concepts, and skills hypothesized
by Davison and Tippett (1977) to be relevant to the needs of
young people who are just entering the exploration stage of
vocational development. These needs are classified in three
areas. The first pertains to knowledge about oneself, including
the need to know more abut likes, dislikes, abilities,
aptitudes and their relationship to the world of work. Second,
there is the need to know more about different varieties of
occupations, the skills required to enter them, the conditions
under which one is expected to work and the benefits one can !'
derive from the occupation. Finally, it is stressed that young
people also need-~kilis which will help them in the process of ,
deciding which occupations to exp$pre and, ultimately, to enter
into as a career. !
Choice of Population for Study
The population chosen for this study was grade 10. This
is an important grade level in the British Columbia school
system as it -marks the end of the junior secondary grades where
exploration of many areas of study like art, industrial d
education, foods, music, business education and crafts is
expected. It begins t h e senior leveiswhich- &he years
two areas. At the end of grade 10, students must choose a
program which will lead to the fulfilment of their post-
secondary needs, whether this be entry to the labour force or
-
level.
A second major factor influencing the, selection of this
population is the life stage of 15 to 17 year old students.
At this age they are entering the years of career choice, prior
L to full-time gainful employment (~rites, 1976). This age level
is referred to as the Exploratory Stage by Super (1957) and the
Tentative Period by Ginzberg et al. (1951). Super (1978)
defines this age even further by designating it the tentative
substage during whfch occupational needs, interests, capacities,
values and opportunities are considered. also, during this s
substage tentative occupational choices are made and tried out
in fantasy and discussion, which according to Super (1978),
-. leads students toward crystallization of their career choice. b
, \
Operational Statement of the Hypotheses \ % ?\ k
m e intended effects of the career education program and
the work experience program as measured by the Career Maturity . .
C M I ) Attitude Scale, Career Maturity Inventory ( C M I )
T&t and School sentibent Index (SSI) fall into four tD
eachkcontaining three hypotheses.
f Gains within the career education group
1) Career educatian students-sdlL acquire increased - - - - - 6 mas t e q o f occupationaf informat ion as measured by -
the CMX Competence Test subscales. . 2) Career e d u c a d u d e n t s will acquire increased
-
22
career maturity as measunzLby--the - - -
Scale.
3) >Career education stu$ents will demonstrate increased w positive attit toward school, as measured by the SSI.
11. Performance of Career Education Students Relative to
the placebo or control students.
I) Career education students will acquire significantly I - greater mastery of occupational information than the
/ -, 4 / placebo or control students as measured by the CMI
f Competence Test subscales. \ 2) Career education. students will acquire significantly \ 6" greater career e r i t y than placebo or control i skudents which will be measured by the CMI Attitude \ Scale. 4 ) Career education students will demonstrate signifi-
cantly more positive attitude toward school than
placebo or control students, as measured by the SSI.
111 Accretion of work-experience students relative to non- I
wqrk experhmies tudents . 4
I) Work-Experience students will acquire significantly
greater occupational information than
73- et e%iceTSstP su5scaTes. -
2) Work-Experience students w i uire significantly
greater career maturity than non-work-experience
-
Scale. 't.
3) Work-Experience students will demonstrate sigriifi-
cantly more positive attitude toward sch 01 than P non-work-'experience.students, as measur d by the SSI. C . \
Performance of work-experience students who also take t
career educatton relative to non-work-expereince
students who do not take career education.
1) Work-Experience students who also take career educa-
tion will acquire significantly greater mastery of
occupational information than normmrk-experience
students who do not take career education as easured T\ by the CHI Competence Test subscales. .I'
f I
ork-Experience students who also take career educa- I ion will acquire signiEfcantIy greater career maturity than non-work-experience students who do
not take career education which will be measured by
the CMX ~ttitude Scale.
Work-Experience students who also take career 1
education will demonstrate a significantly more
positive attitude toward school than non-work-
experience students who do not take career education, 4 -
- -- - - - - - - - - - - -
as measured by the SSI. -- -- -
-
METHOD
Subjects and Settinq /
--
The simple for this study wts the entire grade 10 class
of a 500 student junior-senior secondary s c p l . Students
were from mixed socio-economic families of which about 15% 'h-
live in a rural setting. about half of the remaining 85%' can
be described as long-term residents who have lived in one of
the small surrounding communities for many years, some for
several generations. The remaining group was relatively new
to this area, lived in one of the new subdivisions and probably -. earned their income in the adjacent large metropolitan community.
'This school was somewhat unique in that no career education had
been tgught up to the time of this research study. -The 4
importance of this is that it provided a control group which
had no previous experience with career education~and therefore
was a non-contaminated group to which a treatment group could C '
, be compared.
All 93 grade 10 students were *randomly assigned to one of +
fourgrade 10 English classes in June of the previous year.
The number of students in each class was i ~ - $ 7 and 28 - - - - - - - - - - - I - - -
with &average class size of 2 3 . 2 5 ~ The school was on a3ive- - - - - -
by-five rotating timetable so that classes met f c a one~hour
period each day. Each student was given the option of doing c - - ,'
alternate work in English literature if they chose not to
-
- 4 - - - -
participate in the treatment group to which they were assigned.
Three students from the class of 27 chose to do alternate work
in English literatdre. One student, who also spoke for his
friend said, "We don't need that stuff". In an interview
aftez the completign of the program, these two explained that w1
'thedfelt threatened by the thought of working in small groups -
and that theyrh-ad not participated in the alternate program. i
The third person said, "I just don't want to take any career
education". After the program he explained that he used the
time' as a study period or to leave early from school without
permission. - Treatment
The three educational program treatments administered in I-
cthTss€ucfywere a career education, a developmental guidance
and an ~ n ~ l i s h literature progfam. In addition, some of the
students in each of the three treatments also participated in
a one-week work experience program. The career education
program involvgd a series of topics related to career development,
suchSas the nature of rk and a search for occupatiofia% - Y alternatives (Davison and Tippett , 1977) . Tlie developmental
- -
guidance progr~nvolved exercises which are designed to help - - - - -- - ~ ---- -- ~
- students develop greater self-esteem. Activities like 1 ~ - ~ - -~ -
cbv6ring a personal Coat of Arms with the things one feels good + -L
,&out; and keeping and sharing a daily. dtary were used to meet
this goal (Canfield and Wells, 1976, p. 51, Simon, 1974, p. 13).
-
and drugs (Ministry of Health, 1977). ' Students in the
English literature program were assigned the reading of one ,+
book chosen from the library and a series of exercises based .%T on the reading.
Career Education. The career education program used in
this study is part of the mare comprehensive vocational guidance -
program Creating a Career. It was developed by Catherine 4"
Davison and Glen Tippett (1977) and has five published compon- - * - -
ents which include an instructor's manual, two textbooks, a
student workbook a n d a occupational exploration kit. . Creating a Career was developed as a curriculum-based
vocafional guidance program. Its developers &aim it can be f
used in a variety of settings and is appropriate for any age
group 15 or over. It has been used primarily in junior* and 1- - - -
--& senior secondary schools but it also has been introduced into
other settings such as those of the Manpower and Tnrmigration
Centres. Generally, ~reati& a Career is founded on theories
of vocational development, a d was specifically derived from /' 1
t W w&ks of Super (1957) , ~klland (1959, 1966) , Ginzberg
(kg-. Tiedeman (1961). &me aspects of the theories of
occupational choice, mainly from Maslow's hierarchy of needs A
- - - - pp -- -- - -- - -- a9541 Egrs ififlUence-6f- E L F ~ ~ parent -child relationships
- - % Units &e -throu@&ine were taught exactly as the
-.I
instructor's manual directs except that, because of limited ' x4
resources, the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) and the
-
1 ---- ~ ~ c c ~ ~ a t 1 0 & ~ n t e r e s t ~nventory (CVLI) were notused. -
Effort was spent trying to obtain the COII from the Department C
of Manpower and Inrmigrw-ion, however it was not avaklable for
use.
- mmef o coun~Jlors who instructed separate sections of "t. the caree education program met'daily during the running of $- &he +~gram ku Insure t-hat the sessions were- concuzrent- and- - -
-
parallel in fopmat. During these meetings, no information was D -
\ : exc'hanged concerning the counsellors ' perception$ of -1 outcomes
- J, g - - - or of incidences which may have taken place in the classrooms.
2
Developmental Guidance. The developmental guidance program
was synchronized with the career education program in that it 4
began on the same day, was taught, and ended on the same day. .-
A complete list of activities used in this program is included
English Literature. The English program consisted of a
series of assignments and clas-s discussions based on a book -
that each student chose and read. Students were given classr
time to select and read the book, and to complete the assign-
ments, which included a description of the main character, an
analysis of the theme and mood, and a book cover depicting the J
coqnts of the book. This program began and ended on the *_
grade 10 students undertook work experience program. Students
who volunteered for the program were assigned to a place of - -
-
work in the community for a five-day period. They worked the
same hours as did the employees at their placement and there-
fore missed one week of school. During this five-day period'
these students discontinued the treatment prQgram in which
4 they were participating at school. Table I showb the dis-. tribution. of students from the educational program (eg. career
- --- - - - -
education, &velopmen~l* guidance or control) &o did or did -
I
not participate in the work experience program. >
Table I
Group treatments and sample sizes *
Developmental Career Education Guidance English
Instructor Instructor Instructor Instructor - - I - ZZ - - 11 - IXZ- Totals
/'
- PFrk xperience 19. i/ ..Work
Experience 7
Totals 17 24 29 20 90
The Career Maturity Inventory ( C M I ) . The CMI i's an
individmlly or group-administered measure of career maturity
that is comprised of two parts. The CMI Attitude Scale has
five dimensions: (a) involvement in the choice process, (b)
orientation toward work, (c) in ependence in decision making, e I 1 -
-
-- --- - - - - - -
a (dl preference for career choice factors, and (e) conceptions
of the choice $recess (Crites , 1973d) . The CnI Attitude Scale consists of 50 true or false attitudfnal statements developed
to assess the five dimensicma. Part two, the CMI Competence
Test, has five s u b t e s t s : (a) knowing yourself, (b) knowing
about fobs, (c) choosing a job, (d) looking ahead, and (e) what - -
should they do. ~ a c h of the five subtests measures a career
choice competency which is respectively, (a) self -appraisal,
[b) gccl?pational inf ongation, Cc) _goal selection, Cd) planning,
and (e) problem solving (Crftes, 1973d).
The CHI Attitude Scale was developed from vocational
development theory (Crites, 1965; Super, 1957) and its pufpose
i e to measure career choice attitudes. The two types of
reliability that have been emmined are~internal consistency
and s t a b i l i t y . From sample sizes ranging from 255 to 1349 the
Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 yielded a mean internal consistency
coefficient of - 7 4 (Critee, 1973d, p. 14). Stability data
using 1,648 subjects produced a correlation of . 7 1 over a one- ,
par tnteryal Grit- 1973df, Three types of validity have been inveotigated: content,
criterion-related and construct. The result of a study
- - - - r ~ d - B ) c & & & x + 44 %%# &- v d t f -yt..by-H&1-Cl9Q2& --- -- -
r - -- A r ~ v h L c h ~ t e r ~ a x p e r L - j l r r d g m x _t&read_the 5Xitemn-sf - t.. -
the attitude scale and indicate which they considered to be
the Blare mature rcspmse to each item yielded 74 percent
agreement. Two studies of criterion-related validity by Hiller
-
and Haller (1964) using the Occupational Aspiration Scale and - - - - -- - - - - - I r
by Cooter (1969), as reported by Crites (1973d) using Gribbons
and Lohns' Readiness for Vocational Planning, found correlations
of .39 (pc.01) and .38 (pc.01) respectively. Crites (1973d)
reports three studies which support the construct validity of
the CMI Attitude Scale. Asbury (1967), Bovee (1967) and
Gilliland (1966) independently studied the effectiveness of - / --
counselling to change students' career maturity. Using a - preterift-posttest design they found that counselled students
averaged higher Bcores on the CMI Attitude Scale. Crites
'(1973d) described two studies that do not support its validity.
In a study of the effectiveness of a 22-hour career.education
program to change career attitude, Schmieding and ens en (1968) were unable to demonstrate any statistically reliable effects.
The other study, by Shirts (1966), which is reported in Crites
(1973d) found no statistically reliable change to career
attitude maturity of students who participated in playing a t
-career game. Crites (1973d) states that in general the findings
of these studies indiqate that the CMI Attitude Scale is -
sufficiently reliable when related to variables which, theoret-
ically, it should be related. Hwever,,a study or reliability
by Hanna and Needy (1978) casts doubt on the discriminability
of the five subdomains of attitude identified in Crites (1973dZ_ ~- - - ~ --- --- - -- - ~ - - -- ---
In this study, 273 ninth-grade students were enrolled in either -------- ~ -~ - ~ ----- ~ ~ - -~ -& -
a civics or careers course. It was found KR-20 and split-half
estimates were moderately high (.70 and .71), strongly suggesting
-
that the items were drawn m a single attitude domain rather - - -- - - -- - --- - - thk five distinct subdomains as maintained by Crites .
The CMZ Competence Test was developed using the same
model as was used to develop the CMT Attitude Scale. It
attempts to measure the level of career development subsumed
by career choice competencies. The only reliability study
available from the manual reports internal consistency. K der- J Y -
Richardson Formula 20 was used to calculate coefficients
each subtest and grade level. The samples ranged in size from
120 to 475 and from grade six to twelve. All but two
coefficients ranged from .72 to .90 with grade ten coefficients
between .82 and .89. Crites (1973d) offers a theoretical
explanation for the two low coefficients (.58 and .63) found
for grades six and seven, respectively. He explains that
students at this stage in their career development may not
have cunsolidated~their strategies of coping with problems of
- decision making. Therefore the internal consistency of this
subtest would be affected by their solving one problem one way,
and another a different way.
- Three types of validity were investigated: content,_ criterion-related and construct. No studies of content
validity were available but Crites (1973a) claims the combined
of - - - the test support its suJst~tLve validity,In-mo.studies
reported by Crites C1973d; Crites, 1961, Wohlwfll, 1970) a mean
overlap of 43 percent between sc distributions of the
-
df the subtests from grade to grade were found.
reasonable overlap based on the assumption that individuals -
develop at different rates and they are not necessarily con-
sistent with their grade level. Little research was avail-
able on construct validity; however Crites (1973d) has found
a mean correlation amongj the subtests of .54. It is evident
thar more wurk is neoessary to substantiate the construct
validity of the CMI Competence Test.
The School Sentiment Index (SSI). The SSI is an informal
instrument used to evaluate students' attitudes toward school
(see Appendix B). It consists of 83 statements which deal
with various aspects of school to which students respond by
iniating either strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly
disagree. In this study, the four point scale was used to
force s~udents to make a decisFon in either the posltive or
negative direction. This self-report device attempts to secure
students1 response$ to statements which pertain to the follow-
ing ffve aspects qf school: (1) teacher, (a) mode of instruc-
tion, (b) authority and control and (c) interpersonal relation- .
ships; (2) learning related activities; (3) school social
structures and climate; (4) peer relations in the school i
context and; ( 5 ) general notion of school.
Students rate each statement on the SSI by marking their
values of 1, 2, 3, and 4 were assigned to each response.
Responses which reflected* negative attitude were given the *
-
values "3" and "4".
The student Evaluatibn Scale (SEVS) . The SEVS is a non- standardi2ed instrument designed specifically for this study
to obtain information from students concerning their feelings
about both the program and the instructor (see Appendix C) . Questions 10 through 15 were reversed to check the students'
answering strdtegies. Students alsodwere given the opportunity
to provide open comments about the program and the instructor.
A four-point scale was used to force a definite indicator bf
positive or negative feelings. .
SSI; CMI Attitude Scale and CMI Competence Test were
administered to students by a school counsellor and were 6
computer scored: ,
The four groups of students involved in this study note
the SSI followed by the CMI Attitude Scale during one regular
English class period just prior to the commencement of the %
programs. The rationale for these' instruments being'writsten
together is that they are both attitudinal measures which
written the following day. Special fxangements had to be
made to allaw students two full periods which were required for
-
- . - -. - -~ - -
the competence Test. p e n questions were asked by
students regarding content they.were answered by: "Try to
answer. as best you can, - on your own".
All stydents were able to yqlete the instruments in the
allotted time. Students who finished early were allowed to \ -
talk quietly with other completed students.
From-the four EngEsh I0 classes, two were randomly ,
selected for the Creating a Career vocational guidance program,
one was randomly selected for a developmental guidance program -
ahd one as 'a control gr&p which received a continuation of
their ~ n ~ l i s h curriculum. &o counsellors were - randomly
assigned to teach the career education program, one of the two
counsellors was *e also assigned to teach the developmental
guidance program and one English teacher ontinued to teach the
English 10 program.
~ollowin~ =the pretest procedure each group began their
asstbed prograpt and continued on it for 14 consecutive one-
- hour sessions: During the third week of the programs 37 students went on' trork eGerieqce.
fie posttest Grocedure began the day after the completion ,
of the programs and proceed in the same manner as the pretest -
procedure, Following this the groups were asked to mplete an - - - -- - "P-- -
evaluation of the progrq, the instructor and the program's
effect on themselves.
-
This chapter is made up of five major sections. The
first section reports missing data. The second section ,
demonstrates the reliability of the dependent variables.
Section three examines the effect of the instructors. The
fourth section examines the effectiveness of treatments and
the last section sumuarizes the results,.
Missing; Data
The size
instrument to
kQ
of each group varied-from one measure ent i another due to student absence and unusable &ta.
I.B.M. 1230 Opscan answer sheets with more than one answer
marked for each question or with answers missing were not
used in the statistical analysis for all measurement instruments
except the SSI. Missing answers to questions on the SSI were - - -
- computed as the mean of the scale, i.e. 2$. This procedure 1 L
was applied for only 13 out of a possible 5,934 answers, or
.&L% of all student responses on this instrument. The amount - \
of missing and unusable data for the CMI Competency Test
Reliability of Dependent Variables - - - - - - -- - - - - - -
-\ Alpha coefficients of internal-&onsistency were calculated
fer each dependent variable (Table I$). icients for the
M I Attitude Scale and the MI st were in the
-
.J
dternal Consistency oefficients for all Dependent
Variables
Pretest Posttest i
-
Attitude 'Scale 3
.78 .68
SSI
m s
Self-Appraisal -g. ,+.. .64 / ,.
O c c u p a t f ~ 1 Irrformat ion ,, - .65 - .78 , .. d l
Goal Selectgon * .72 1: - 2 9
Planning --.
Problem Solving
-
- - - - - - - -, ---- - - - -- - .
expected range and are consistent &th studies by Crites
(1973d), Flake, Roach and Stenning (lkFL).! Hardie (1978).
Je-ings (1976) and W i g , Tulloch and Thomas (1975). They
are within the range reported by Crites (1973d) when they -L
are compared with the ele&enth-grade level. This comparison
group was chosen because this study was conducted in June
with tenth grade students whose maturity level would at this /
time be more comparable Lo eleventh grade students. J
The alpha c&_fMents of internal consistency were
extremely high for the SSI. Only three studies were found
which used SSI; Moodie (1971), Travis (1976) and Woods
(1977.2.: .Since they did not report on its internal reliability,
comparison was available.
The internal consistency of the SEVS proved higher than
expected. This was the first study to use this instrument,
there-fore no comparative figures about its reliability were
> available . Qs
Instructor Effects
Since the two career education groups were taught by
different instructors, it is possible that the effects of this
program might have depended on which ~ ~ -- - ~ - - ~- -- - - - - - -- - ~ - -- - - ~
lessons. Thus, a conservative approach to the analyses com- -- - - - --- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - -
paring career educatna). and the other groups would keep these
two career education classes separated. However, if no
differences between the groups could be demonstrated, pooling
-
the students iinto a single career education group would
iwrease the sample size for this condition wfth attendant I
benefits to both statistical analyses and representativeness I
of results. To examine this question, these two groups were
compared on all dependent variables obtained atz ,the pretest and 1
the posttest, except the SEVS,
To ensure that the assumption of equal variance among -
F .
groups was not violated in calahl'ating the t tests and to be
consistent in all the t tests, separate variance tests were
performed (Table 111). No significant differences were found
between instructors on any of the SSI, CMI Attitude Scale or
CMI Competence Test. Thus, these two groups were pooled in
all further analyses.
Effectiveness of the Treatment
The main con-cern of this study was to measure the effect-
iveness of the career education program and the work-
---- - experience program. For each treatment group in the 2 X 3
design, (work e~erience by education program) , means and
standard deviations were calculated for the CMI Competence
Test subscales, CMI Attitude Scale, SSI, and SEVS. These are - 1
presented in-Tables - IV - - throu&XI. -- -- Separate - --- - 2 - X - - 3 analyses - - - - - - -
of variance were calculated for pretest and posttest data. - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Significant F statistics were followed by the Tukey HSD
procedure with harmonic n as a;post hoc analysis procedure.
This was followed by a series of matched t tests comparing -
-
- -
39 - - - - - - -
T A B L E T I --
C
t Tes t s E x a m i n i n g " u r e n c e s Between I n s t r u c t o r s -7- -
-
P r e t e s t (n=21) 2 0 5 . 5 7 ~ 25.34 -.62 25.46 .54
SSI ( n = 1 3 ) 211.15 25.49 \-
P o s t t e s t (n=21) 208.62 21.34 1.07 22.67 .29 (n=13) 199.69. 24.80
- - - -- - - - - -- - - -
P r e t e s t (n=20) 33.85 5.12 - .24 14.90 . 8 1 CMI ( n = l l ) 34.40 6.43 ATTITUDE SCALE P o s t t e s t (n=20) 34.55 3.56 - 2 4 12.99 .81
( n = l l ) 34.10 5.47 LA
P r e t d s t (n=14) 14.57 2.59 :10 19.86 .92 CMI ( n = l l ) 14.45 3 . 8 1 SELF- APPRAISAL P o s t t e s t (n=14) 53.64 3.90 . 9 1 21.28 .37
1 -
( n = l > ) 12.18 4 0 2 e'
p r e t e s t (n=14) 17.14 2.03\~:22 14.68 .24 CMI ( n = l l ) 15 .64 . 3.70 1 OCCUPATIONAL - . INFORMATION POS tf es t (n=14) 16.07 3.56 .75 18.73 .46
I,, ( n = l l ) 14.82 4 .51 1 i
-
Pretest (n=14) 13.43~ 3.46 .04 19.58 .97 CMI (n=ll) 13.36 4.11 GOAL SELECTION Posttest (n=14) 14.07 1.14 1.16 11.30 .27
(n=ll) 12.64 3.98 * -- - --
Pretest ( ~ 1 8 ) 1 m 0 3 .50 -38 16.08 .70 (n=ll) 12.36 4.59
< ,' Posttest (n=14) 12.71 k,68 .I3 21.06 .YO
(n=ll) 12.45 &93
Pretest (n=14)- 10.64 2.59 .39 16.08 .70 C M I , (n=ll) 10.09 4.09 PROBLEM., SOLVING' - Posttest (n=14) 9.57 2.95 -1.46 17.42 .16
(n=ll) 11.73 4.15
a All tests are ~ 6 - t a i l e d , b Upper values represent Instructor I, lower v represent Instructor 11.
-
TABLE IV
Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest and Post test
MI Self-Appraisal
Career Guidance Control Totals
Pretest Work ' 15.23~ -14.14~ 15.00~ 14.69~ Experience - 2,71 2,5L - 4-.24 - 2~65- - uu A
No Work Experience
Totals
Pos t tes t Work Experience
No Work Experience
Totals -
Note: Upper values represent-means, lower values represent standard devfations .
-
TABLE V
Means and Standard Deviation Pretest and Posttest
CMI Occupational Information - - - - - - - - -
Career Guidance Control Totals
Pretest Work - Experknee
No Work Experience
Posttest Work E q e r i_ence
No Work 14. €Ue 15. 6of 15. 5gg 15. 31h Experience 2.27 4.47
Totals \
Note: Upper values represent means, lower values represent standard deviations. a ( 1 ~ 1 3 ) ; (31=14) ; (n=2) ; d(n=29)
-
TIT-
L Means and Standard Deviations on Pretest and Posttest
CHI Goal Sefectim 7
Career Guidance Control Totals e
Ho Wofk Experience
Pcrs m t Work Experience
No Work Experience
ear, /'- %
Z 1 Note: Upper values represent means, lower values represent
s tmdard deviations .
-
Means and Standard D e b t i o n s on
CMI Planning
Career Guidance Control Totals
- Pretest W o r k - - J Experience
No Work Experience
~ ~
Totals
P o s t t e s t Work Experience
No Work Experience
-. -.. Note: Upper values represent means, lower values represent
d c a n d a r d deviations. { I - k
-
- - - -
45 - --
TABLE UII - - - - - - - - - - -- -
-L&- --%
fS s and Standard Devia t ions on P r e t e s t and P o s t t e s t
/ t
Career Guidance Cont ro l T o t a l s
P r e t e s t Work 1 2 4 6 ~ 12. 36b 11.50' 11. 9od ~&exa .e~~e - 2.15 3.00 4.95 2.69 . - -
No Work E Q e r i e n c e
1
T o t a l s
Pos t t e s t Work 11.62 11.64 12.50 11.96 Experience 3.40 -. 2.95 2.12 3.04
No Work Experience
T o t a l 10.52 l 0 . h 10.20 3.62 - 3.35 3.99
fL 'l
Note: Upper va lues r e p r e s e n t means, lower values r e p r e s e n t . standard deviations.
-
Means and Standard
CMI Att i tude Scale
Deviations on Pre tes t and Post tes t *
Career Guidance Control Totals
Pre tes t Work 35.71a 36.64b 38.75' 36.43d Experience 5.28 2.92 5.50 4.47
No Work 31. 85e 35.45f 3 4 . 0 0 ~ 33.67h Experisce 5.12 5.61 6.58 5 . 8 2
Totals
Pos t t e s t Work .. . . 35. 53a 37. 57b Experience 4.14 3.88
No, Work 32. 92e 36.64•’ Experience 3.95 6.27
Totals
Note: Upper values represent means, lower values kepresent standard deviations
-
Means and S t a n d a r d D e v i a t i o n s on P r e t e s t and P o s t t e s t
Career Guidance C o n t r o l T o t a l s
P r e t e s t Work 219 .7sa 208 .19~ 223.00' 214-97d Expe r i ence 12 .48 20.53 13 .88 17.40
No Work 197 :Ooe 225. 27f 211: 24g 2 0 9 . 0 2 ~ Expe r i ence 28.87 20.92 25 .64 27.75
T o t a l s 207.71 215.15 213.48 25.16 22 .01 24.01
Pos t tes t Work 211. 6ga 203. 56b 232.00' 210. 33d Expe r i ence 1 9 . 3 8 28.75 17.76 24.85
No Work 199. 44e 223.00' 221. 94g 213. 3gh Expe r i ence 24 .53 21.69 18 .17 24.02
Note: Upper v a l u e s r e p r e s e n t means, lower values r e p r e s e n t s t a n d a r d d e v i a t i o n s .
-
TABLE XI
Means' and Standard Deviations
SEVS
Career 1 Career 2 Guidance Totals (n=l6) (n= 5) (n=22) ( ~ 4 3 )
Program Evaluation - 30.18~ 4.12
Instructor Evaluation
Effect Report
Totals
a Upper values represent means, lower values represent standard deviations.
-
a l l p r e t e s t and p o s t t e s t means on a l l dependent v a r i a b l e s / ' I
u i t h i n each group t o assess changes within groups over
t ime. The r e s u l t s o f analyses of var iance on each dependent
v a r i a b l e are presented i n Tables X I 1 through X I X .
Tables XX through X X I I show means, s tandard d e v i a t i o n s ,
and matched t t e s t s on p r e t e s t and p o s t t e s t f o r all dependent
v a r i a b l e s . Post hoc ana lys i s of means was used t o exp la in >
t h e s i g n i f i c a n t interac. tFons on the SSI and the s i g n i f i c a n t
F - s t a t i s t i c s on t h e SEVS (Tables XXIII and XXIV, Figures 2 and
3 ) . A l l e f f e c t s were t e s t e d f o r s t a t i s t i c a l s i g n i f i c a n c e a t
the .05 l e v e l of p r o b a b i l i t y .
Gains w i th in t h e c a r e e r education group. The hypothes is
t h a t c a r e e r educat ion s tuden t s would acqu i r e s i g n i f i c a n t l y
increased c a r e e r ma tu r i t y w a s t e s t e d by comparing t h e p r e t e s t
/ and p o s t t e s t performances on t h e subsca les of t h e CMI (Table !
M). A s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e from p r e t e s t t o p o s t t e s t was
found f o r c a r e e r educat ion s tuden t s who p a r t i c i p a t e d i n work-
experience on the CMI s e l f - a p p r a i s a l subsca l e . Their mean
score on t h i s subscale dec l ined by 13.6%. No s i g n i f i c a n t
d i f f e r ences from p r e t e s t t o p o s t t e s t were found f o r the c a r e e r
education group on the CMI At t i t ude Scale o r t h e SSI (Tables
XXT and XXII) *
Performance of c a r e e r educat ion s tuden t s r e l a t i v e t o
c o n t r o l s t u d e n t s , The hypothes is t h a t c a r e e r educat ion e tudents
would acqui re s i g n i f i c a n t l y g r e a t e r c a r e e r ma tu r i t y than
placebo o r con t ro l s tuden ts was t e s t e d by comparing t h e p r e t e s t
and p o s t t e a t performances on the subscales of the CMI and the
-
Analysis of Varianc'e on pretest and Posttest
CMT Self-Appraisal
Pretest Work Experience 6.25
Education Program_/ 1 .30 2 -65 .09 . 9 1
Interaction
Residual 425.08 58 7 . 3 3
Total 445.36 63 7 .07
Posttest Work E x p e r - c e .23 1 .23 .02 .88 " &=*, -- - -- -
Education %&ram 10.37 2 5 . 1 9 - 5 1 .60
Interactiur- - .51 2 .26 . 03 .9?-
I$esidual
Total
-
TABLE XI11
Analysis of Variance on Pretest apd Posttest
CMI Occupational Information
- -
Pretest Work Experience 23.93 1 23.93 3.42 .09
Education Program 32.33 2 16.16 2.31 .06
R e s i d u a l
Total
Pos t ~ s t Work Experience 11.66 1 1 1 . 6 7 .95 .34
Education Program 2.76 2 1.38 .11 .89 -
Interaction 3.55 2 1.28 .1_4 .87
R e s i d u a l 715.91 58 12.34
Total 732.10 63 11.62
-
Analysis o f Variance on P r e t e s t and P o s t t e s t
CMI Goal S e l e c t i o n
(n=64)
~ r e t e s b Work Experience 15.40 1 15.40 l.kO .24
Education Program 9.85 2 4.92 .45 .64
f n t e r a e t i o n 49.59 2 24.80 2 .25 .11
Residual 639.89 58 11.03
To ta l 709.35 63 11.26 - L
Pos ttest Work Experience 2.06 1 2.06 .23 .63
E u c a t i o n Program 3 . 7 2 ? 1 1.86 . 2 1 . 8 1 ~ n h ~ o f l
Residual
T o t a l
-
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Postte~t
U
Pretest Work Experience 20.25 1 20.26 1.91 .17
. Education Program 37.02 2 18.51 1.75 .18
Interaction 40.33 2 20.16,1.90 .15
Res idual 615.41 58 10.61
Total 700.43 63 11.12
Pos t tes t Work Experience 58.69 1 58.69 2.94 .09
Education Program 19.95 2 9.98 .50 .60
Interaction
Residual 1156.76 58 19.94
Total , 1235.73 6 n M
-
-~
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest
CPIn Problem Solving
Pretest - - Work Experience - - 55.71 1 55.71 - 6.09 .01 - -
Education Program, 13.64
Interaction 1.65 2 : : :: ha.. T ResitTUaI
Total J
c/
Posttest Work Experience 71.14 2 71.14 5.70 .02
Education Program 2.78 2 1.39 .11 .89
Interaction .35 2 .18 .01. .98
Total 797.93 63 12.66
-
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and Posttest
CM: Attitude Scale
Pretest Work Experience 151.29 1 151.29 5.60 .02
Education Program - 75.82 2 37.91 1.40 .25 - - - - - - -- - -- - -- - -- - - - - 7 - -
Interaction 34.84 2 17.42 .65 .53
Residual 1755.91 65 27.01
Total , 2001.94 70 28.60
Posttest Work Experience 71.85 1 71.85 3.24 .07
Education Program 105.18 2 52.56 2.41 .09 - - - - ' t -
~nterackion 13.66 2 6.83 .31 .73
Residual 1418.79 65 21.83
- , -, Total
-
Analysis of Variance on Pretest and P o s t t e s t
SSI
( ~ 8 2 )
---- - A - -A - - -- - - - - A- - A - - - - ,
P d t e s t Work Experience 1711.87 1 782.55 1.55 .21
L? ucation Program 782.55 2 498.40 .99 .37 - - - -
- - I m t e r a c t i m - - - f 952.47 - 2 2W%.-21 5 . q r . O f f - - - -
Residual ' 38296.55 76 503.90
Total
Pos ttest Work Experience 1
Education Program 4345.11 2 2172.56 4.21 . O 1
-
TABLE XXX
Analysis of Variance
SEVS (1~43 )
Program Evaluation 475.27 2 237.63 13.40 -00
Tota l - 1184.97 42 28.21
I n s t r u c t o r Evaluation 17.45 2 8.73 8.15 .OO
Residual 42.83 40 1.07
Tota l 60.28 42 1.44
Eflect Report- - - - -29 2 . I 4 .22 3 D -
Residual 26146 40 .66
Total
Total Evaluation
Total 1662.79 42 39.59
-
TABLE XX i
Means, Standard Deviations and Matched t tests on Pretest
and Posttest
Control .,, and No Work Experience
Self - 13. 78b Appraisal '13.23
Occupational 16.15 ~nfonnation 1 5 . 5 4
Goal 13.92 Select ion 13.77
Planning 13.85 12.92
Problem 20.38 Solving 9.85
Self - 14.50~ 2.64 .69 9 .50 Appraisal 13.90 2.81
- . Occupational 15.00 2.75 - . 94 9 .37--
Guidance Information 15.60 2.27 and No Work Goal 14.40 3.81 1.06 9 .31 Experience Selectf on 13. SO 3 . 4 4
(n- LO > Planning 13.80 2.66 .66 9 . 5 2 12,9Q 5,15
Prob 1 3 . 0 2 1.12 ' 9 . 2 9 Solvin 3.63
-
TABLE XX - continued d
+ Self- 14.14~ 2.50 .30 13 .76 Appraisal 13.93 1.69
i
Occupational 15.36 2.53 - .72 13 .48 Guidance Information 15.93 2.17 and Work Goal 13.36 2.87 -.94 13 .36 Experience Selection 14.00 2.39
(ns14) Planning 13.07 2.09 -.56 13 .14 14.21 3.53
Problem 12.36 3.00 - 8 6 2 3 .40 Solving 11.64 2.95
Self- 15. Oob Appraisal 13.00
Occupational 17.50 Information 17.00 Control
and Work Experience
Goa 1 15.00 Selection 15.00
Planning 17.50 15.00
Problem 11.50 Solving 12. 50
-
TABLE XX - continued
S e l f - Appraisal
Occupational Career Information Education
- and Goal Work S e l e c t i o n Experience
Planning (n=13)
Problem Solving
S e l f - 1 3 . 1 5 ~ 2.63 - - Appraisa l 12 .83 4.06
Occupational 15.33 Career fnformation 14 .83 Education I- and Goal 11.83 No Work SelectJon 1 3 . 4 1 Experience
Planning 11.50
Problem Solving
A 1 1 t e s t s a r e two-tailed,
Upper va lues r e p r e s e n t p r e t e s t , lower va lues r e p r e s e n t pos t - t e s t
-
/'
Means, Standard Deviat ions and Matched t tesgs on P r e t e s t
C and P o s t t e s t CMI A t t i t u d e Sca le
Control and No Work E e r i e n c e "P Guidance and No Work Experience
Guidance and Work Experience
Control and Work Experience
Career Educat ion. and 35.71 5.29 . 1 7 16 .87 Work Experience 35.53 4.14
Career Education and 31.85 5.13 .3 - .83 12 .42 No Work ~ x p e r i e n t e 32.92 3.95,
a A l l t e s t s a r e --tailed.
b Upper va lues r e p r e s e n t p r e t e s t , l o y e r va lues r e p r e s e n t post- t e s t . d
-
Means, Standard Deviatiorrs and 'Matched t t e s t s on Pretest
and Posttest
S S I
Control and No Work Experience (n=17)
Guidance and No Work Experience (n=ll)
Guidance Work Experience (n=16)
ControL and Work Experience (n=4)
Career and Work Experience (n=l6)
Career and No Work 197.00 28 .87 - .27 1 7 .78 Experience (n=18) 199.00 2 4 . 5 3
L .
Upper value represent p re tes t , lower values represent post- t e s t .
-
Tukey HSD Procedure
SSI I
Career
Guidance
Contrbl
Career
Control
Guidance
No
Yes
No
Y e s
Yes
No
Education Work Program Experience N
s i g n i f i c an t lya Di f fe ren t
p o s t t e s t (16.50)b
Career
Guidance
Career
Control
Guidance
Control
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
p o s t t e s t / (13.11)b
*-,
Career t o t a l
Guidance t o t a l
Control t o t a l
b C r i t i c a l value' using harmonic n
-
SEVS
TABLE XXIV
Tukey HSD Procedure
Education Program
s igni f icant lya Different
Program Evaluation (3.83)b
I
Career
Guidance 37.18 A
Career 11 5.20 ~ n s t r k t o r Evaluation Career I 6.31 (. 94)b
Guidance 7 . 1 4
1 L5
Career
Career 11 39.80
Guidance 46.73
a pc .05
C r i t i c a l value using harmonic n
-
220
SSI
215
210
Work-Experience
a Career - Guidance 1 e * . . . Control , - , -
No Work-Experience
Figure 2 Group Interaction on the SSI P o s t t e s t
-
220
S S I
215
Time
Control and No Work-Experience Guidance and No Work-Experience - - - - Guidance and Work-Experience . , , . . , . . Control and Work-Experience . . - Career and Work-Experience - . . - . . . . Career and No Work-Experience - - - - - -
Figure 3 Group and Time Interaction on the SSI
-
- Attitude Scale (Tables X & I through XYII). Following a 4
- statistically significant F statistic for education groups on
the SSI poettest, post hoc analyst8 o f means using the Tukey HSD
procedure with harmonic ntncompensate for different group
sizes found significant differences between the career Q
education group with no work experience and the control groups
with and without work experience (Table XXIII) . m e career ..F=-
education group with no work-experience had the lowest pretest /C, -%
and pos ttes t means on the SSI . Accretion of-rk-experience students relative to non-
work experience students. Students who received work-experience
weren't randomly assigned, but volunteered one week prior to the
beginning of this study. The hypothesis that work-experience
students would gain significantly greater career maturity than
non-work-experience students was tested by comparing the
pretest and posttest performances on the subscales of the CMI.
On pretest, work-experience students scored significantly .
higher on the problem solving subscale of the CMI problem *
mleand the CMI Attitude,Scale than non-work-experience k
students (Tables X V I and-$11) . A t the completion of the programs, the work-experience group scored significantly higher
only on the CMI problem solving subacale. The initial
advantage of etudents at the start of the study wai maintained
at its conclusion on the problem solving subscale (Table XVI) . Following a statistically eignificant.F statistic for the fnter-
action on the SSI pretert and postteat, a port hoc analysis of
-
-
means using the Tukey HSD.procedure with harmonic n to - -- - - --
compensate for different group sizes found significant
difference between the work-experience group who received no - - -
education treatment and the non -worklexperience group who
received career education (Table =If 0 ,
Measuring the quality of experience met by each student
on work-experience was not possible, thus leaving moot the
precise features of this experience. Interpretations of what
actually occurred and hypotheses about why differences were
observed are thereby weakened. Also, the proportion of
students on work-experience from the different treatment groups
was not equal, thus jeopardizing the validity of analysis of-