An evaluation of Career Education 3101, a course option of the Newfoundland high school program, from a cognitive developmental perspective

McCarthy, Jerome J. (1985) An evaluation of Career Education 3101, a course option of the Newfoundland high school program, from a cognitive developmental perspective. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Career Education 3101, a course option of the reorganized high school program in Newfoundland, was examined from a predominantly cognitive developmental perspective using both student and teacher questionnaires. Course and noncourse students were compared using traditional indices of program success as well as measures of students' levels of complexity of career conceptualizations. Comparisons were also made on other variables including: academic stream, level in school, whether students were taught by a teacher or counsellor, extent of process employed by the instructors of the course, sex, age, and demography. Finally, questionnaire items permitted both students and teachers an opportunity to evaluate and indicate their perceptions of Career Education 3101. -- Results showed the variables which most influenced students' responses to traditional career questions were: level in school, academic stream, and the course-noncourse variable. Sex and academic stream proved to be the two major indicators of the complexity of students' conceptualizations of careers. Finally, results showed that students' rating of the course and their perceptions of their teachers for the course varied strongly with the demographic variable and the extent of process variable. -- The major weaknesses of Career Education 3101, as identified by the teachers, included a very poor text, the method used to evaluate student success, lack of resource materials and persons, and the fact that the course was being offered too late to be of maximum value to students. -- Results of the study provided much support for cognitive developmental theory (e.g., Level III students, compared to Level I and Level II students, and students taught by teachers who employed a high degree of process, compared to those of low process teachers, demonstrated more complex conceptualizations of careers). Significant implications are identified (e.g., male and female students appear to require differential intervention strategies) and recommendations for programming and future research (e.g., examination of a major rural-urban difference) are offered.

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