Date of Award:

5-2013

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Committee Chair(s)

Deborah Byrnes

Committee

Deborah Byrnes

Committee

Brian K. Warnick

Committee

Steven O. Laing

Committee

Jeffery Dew

Committee

Lindsey Shirley

Abstract

The Utah State Office of Education Career and Technical supported this quantitative study that evaluated the gains and outcome evaluations of the compulsory Career and Technical Education (CTE) Introduction course. All public school seventh grade students are required to enroll in this school-year course. The matched pair design used preexisting data to analyze 6,078 pre- and postsurvey responses collected at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course during the 2011-2012 school year. The evaluation was viewed through a postpositivist lens and used a theory-based evaluation model as the framework for analysis. The research questions addressed four student variables; career planning, career self-efficacy, career knowledge, and course evaluations. Gender differences along school counselor relationships were also evaluated as possible predictors of course evaluations.

A course-specific, criterion-referenced, instrument was used to measure student differences related to state-identified expected course outcomes. Student data were collected statewide and was representative of the state demographics. The data were analyzed using standard statistical tools including t tests and multiple regression techniques, which were employed to evaluate course significance and effect sizes on these variables: career planning, career self-efficacy, career knowledge, course outcomes, gender moderation, and counselor influence.

Results indicated there were gains with small to medium effects between the preand postsurvey on nearly all variables. When gender was added to the model, females did statistically significantly better on the career knowledge variable relative to males. Males had slightly larger gains in relation to females on self-efficacy. Significant correlations were found between all the variables. The variables of career planning, career self-efficacy, and career knowledge all predicted course evaluation scores, with career planning explaining most of the variance. The moderator model for gender showed no significant interactions, suggesting that gender did not influence course outcomes when combined with career planning, self-efficacy, career knowledge, or meeting with the counselor. Meeting with the school counselor had a small to medium strength effect on career planning, a nonsignificant effect on self-efficacy, and a small effect on course evaluations.

The research results suggest that the CTE introduction course may have a small to medium effect on student career planning, career self-efficacy, and career knowledge, and are positively related to course evaluations.

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