Degree Name

EdD (Doctor of Education)

Program

Educational Leadership

Date of Award

December 1983

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in an experiential based instructional program for exploring vocations in emerging and new technologies would enable academically able high school juniors and seniors to attain increased maturity of attitudes and competency in career decision-making skills as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory. A total of 64 students participated in the study. Participants came from a pool of 132 junior and senior high school students identified as having a grade point average that placed them in the top thirty percent of their class. A pretest and posttest utilizing the Career Maturity Inventory was administered to both an experimental and control group consisting of 32 subjects each. Statistical tests of significance for all null hypotheses involved the use of analysis of covariance. The effects of participation in the program, "Academically Able-Exploring Vocations in Emerging and New Technologies (AA-EVENT)" were determined by comparing the posttest scores of the experimental group and control group on the Attitude Test and each of five subtests of the Competence Test of the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). In each case, the appropriate pretest scores were used as a covariate of the posttest to control for any initial inequalities. All null hypotheses were tested using a .05 level of significance. There was a significant difference (p < .01) in the maturity of attitudes critical in making realistic career decisions between the experimental and control groups. Participants in AA-EVENT scored significantly higher than non-participants. There was a significant difference (p < .01) in self-appraisal in regard to career capabilities between the experimental and control groups. Participants in AA-EVENT scored significantly higher than non-participants. Participants in AA-EVENT scored higher than non-participants on the "Occupational Information," "Goal Selection," and "Problem Solving" subtests of the CMI. Even though gain was significant at the .10 level for each subtest, it was not significant for the purpose of this study. The least difference between the experimental and control groups was obtained on the "Planning" subtest of the CMI. Even though the experimental group had the higher mean, the difference yielded (p < .65) was not great enough to consider participation in AA-EVENT as having an effect. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI

Document Type

Dissertation - unrestricted

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