The connection between career education and career maturity /

The value of career education is measured by the extent to which it enhances students' decision making skills regarding career planning. This is referred to as "career maturity". The purpose of this study was to examine what connections could be found between career education and career maturity within one career planning course. A senior level career planning class was studied in depth for one semester and five senior students participated in the study. The five students were interviewed three times during the semester to determine whether, and to what extent, students feel more prepared personally to make decisions as a result of a guided course of instruction. The current trend in education shows an increased emphasis on career education. The government mandates career education, students are in need of career planning courses, and parents want students to learn how to effectively make decisions concerning their future. With this increased emphasis comes the need to evaluate current career education programs which is why this study is significant and useful. The central findings were as follows: first, as a result of taking a career planning course students did increase their career maturity. Second, current career education planning curriculum was similar to the proposed course of study for career planning which comes into effect in September 1999. Current curriculum does help to prepare students to make informed educational and career decisions, a chief aim of the proposed curriculum. Knowing that this outcome is currently achieved will help when the course is being organized to fit the new curriculum.

Exploring the impact of a hands-on intervention on grade 7 girls and their feelings about self, mathematics, science, technology and related careers

Forty-five 12- and 13-year-old females attending Grade 7 in North York, Ontario were randomly selected from a group of 100 females who had volunteered to participate in a oneday hands-on workshop called It's Your Choice at Seneca College. The goals of this intervention were to broaden the career horizons of these students and to help them realize the need to continue mathematics and science through high school in order to keep occupational options unlimited. The young women were given a pre- and post-attitude survey to provide background information. In the month following participation in the workshop the students were interviewed in small groups (S students per group) to discover their perceptions of the impact of the workshop. The interviews revealed that participants felt that after the workshop their feelings of self-confidence increased, specifically with respect to working with their hands. Participants felt more aware of the usefulness and importance of the study of mathematics, science and technology, They also felt that It's Your Choice increased their interest in careers in these domains and helped them to see that these careers are viable choices for females. The interviews also revealed that many of the participants felt that in this society their roles and their choices were influenced and probably limited by the fact that they are female.

An Exploration of the Impact of Ontario Integrated Secondary Programs Through the Perceptions of their Graduates

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of participating in an integrated program at the secondary level on students’ lives based on their postsecondary perceptions. A basic interpretive qualitative design was employed in this study. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with graduates of integrated program as the means of data collection. It was found that the integrated programs accomplished objectives in close alignment with the mandated curriculum expectations regarding integrated programs. Some of the most powerful impacts related to students' learning skills, such as collaboration and social skills, and how to create as well as participate in community. A strong connection between participating in integrated programs and vocational guidance was also identified. The results led to the recommendation that integrated programs be explored as a platform for delivering 21st century education as they closely paralleled the objectives prescribed by a number of authors who detailed the role of education in the 21st century.

The motivation of vocational students in a college setting /

This qualitative study explores the motivation of College Vocational Program (CVP) students at one campus of a large College of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT a) in urban southern Ontario. The study is in response to my close involvement with the CVP students as an instructor for five years, and my observation that a greater understanding of the motivational influences affecting the students' involvement in the program would strengthen teaching and learning, and enhance the CVP educational experience for students and instructors. This study was limited to one CVP program, and a small sample of convenience of 9 CVP male and female students and 6 instructors selected from two classes. The students were chosen based on their verbal abilities to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and experiences in regard to answering the research questions posed. Through interviews with students, instructors, and ajob coach, this study addressed four main questions relevant to college vocational students and motivation: defining student success, encouragement, discouragement, and perceptions about academic and vocationalleaming. The interview questions for both students and instructors were designed by me and were based on themes derived from the literature and from my experience in the program. The findings identify that the students and instructors see success in the program in a slightly different way, the importance of relationships and structure, the hindering effect of disabilities and the importance of accommodation, and the strong aspiration of the students wanting to learn in a supportive accepting environment. The study concludes with implications for further research and theory development.

A Study of role conflict, role ambiguity, locus of control, job satisfaction and participation in decision making among front-line vocational service workers for mentally retarded adults

This study was an investigation of individual and organizational factors, as perceived by front-line vocational service workers from Adult Rehabilitation Centres (ARC Industries) for mentally retarded adults. The specific variables which were measured included role conflict/role ambiguity (role factors), internal/external locus of control (individual differences), job satisfaction with work and supervision (job attitudes) and participation in deci~ion making (organizational factor). The exploration of these constructs was conducted by means of self-report questionnaires which were completed by sixty-nine out of a total of ninety front-line employees. The surveys were distributed in booklet form to nine distinct rehabilitation facilities from St. Catharines, West Lincoln, Greater Niagara, Port Colborne, WeIland, Fort Erie, Hamilton, Guelph and Brantford. The survey data was evaluated by the statisti.cal Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) which used the Pearson Product Moment Correlation procedure and a compar~son of means test. A comparison of correlation coefficients test was also conducted. This statistical procedure was calculated mathematically. The results obtained from the statistical evaluation confirmed the prediction that self-reported measures of participation in decision making and satisfaction (work and supervision) would be negatively correlated with role conflict and role ambiguity. As well, the speculation that perceived satisfaction (work and supervision) would be positively correlated with participation in decision making was empirically supported. Internal and external locus of control did not contribute to a significant difference in r~sponses to role perceptions (conflict and ambiguity) , satisfaction (work and supervision) or the correlational relationship between participation in decision making and satisfaction (work and supervision). Overall, the findings from this study substantiated the importance of examining employee perceptions in the workplace and the interrelationships among individual and organizational variables. This research was considered a contribution to the general area of occupational stress and to the study of individuals in work organizations.

Elucidation of the Retinoid Signalling Pathway Involved in Axon Guidance in Lymnaea stagnalis and Xenopus laevis

The vitamin A metabolite, retinoic acid (RA), is known to play a crucial role in several developmental processes including axial patterning and differentiation. More recently, RA has been implicated in the regenerative process acting through its classical signaling pathway, the nuclear receptors, retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR), to mediate gene transcription. Moreover, RA has been shown to act as a guidance molecule for growth cones of regenerating motorneurons of the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. Our lab has recently shown that RA can induce this morphological response independent of nuclear transcription, however, the role of the retinoid receptors in RA-induced chemoattraction is still unknown. Here, I show that the retinoid receptors, RXR and RAR, may mediate the growth cones response to the metabolically active retinoic acid isomers, all-trans and 9-cis RA, in Lymnaea stagnalis. Data presented here show that both an RXR and RAR antagonist can block growth cone turning in response to application of both isomers. Because no prior investigations have shown growth cone turning of individual vertebrate neurons, I aimed to show that both retinoic acid isomers were capable of inducing growth cone turning of embryonic spinal cord neurons in the frog, Xenopus laevis. For the first time in Xenopus, I showed that both all-trans and 9-cis RA were able to induce significantly more neurite outgrowth from cultured embryonic spinal cord neurons and induce positive growth cone turning of individual growth cones. In addition, I showed that the presence of the RXR antagonist, HX531, blocked 9-cis RA-induced growth cone turning and the RARβ antagonist, LE135, blocked all-trans RA-induced growth cone turning in this species. Evidence provided here shows for the first time, conservation of retinoic acid-induced growth cone turning in a vertebrate model system. In addition, these data show that the receptors involved in this morphological response may be the same in vertebrates and invertebrates.

VOCATIONAL INTERESTS: CONSTRUCT VALIDITY AND MEASUREMENT

This dissertation addressed several questions relevant to vocational interests and personality characteristics, examining (a) the roles of personality, vocational interests, and sexual fantasies in defining a general factor of Masculinity/Femininity (M/F) (Study 1), (b) the validity of a new measure of vocational interests (Study 2), and (c) the individual difference characteristics that discriminate between students in various academic majors, and that predict academic outcomes (Study 3). In Study 1, vocational interests, personality, and sexual fantasies were examined to find whether these variables would yield a general Masculinity/Femininity (M/F) factor, and whether that factor would still emerge when controlling for participant sex. The results of Study 1 revealed that a general factor of M/F did emerge. When sex was removed, the loadings of vocational interests decreased from high to very low, suggesting that the link of vocational interests with other indicators of M/F is mainly due to sex differences in these variables. The purpose of Study 2 was to validate the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a new public domain vocational interests questionnaire designed to measure eight vocational interest scales. ORVIS scores obtained in a college and community sample were compared with those of two personality measures and two cognitive ability tests. Results from this study showed that the ORVIS scales were reliable and showed good construct validity. The purpose of Study 3, using the ORVIS along with the HEXACO-PI and tests of cognitive ability, was to examine the individual difference characteristics of students in different academic majors, and to use the congruence between a student's academic major and vocational interests as a predictor of academic outcomes, such as GPA, academic major change, and satisfaction with major. The results of Study 3 revealed that students in different academic majors show theoretically meaningful differences in personality, abilities, and interests. Conscientiousness and math ability were found to be the best predictors of academic outcomes. However, congruence between major and interests did not add significant predictive validity to any of these outcomes beyond personality and ability. Together, these three studies show the role of vocational interests in defming MlF and in predicting various academic outcomes.