RESOURCES AND TOOLS THAT SCHOOL COUNSELORS USE FOR CAREER COUNSELING
Kristen DavidsonJennifer EdwardsAlyssa HeggenDanhua Kong
Lauren LaFayetteBrian MaloneyJennifer Richards
SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
A self-administered, self-scored, and self-interpreted career counseling tool (Krieshok 1987)
Developed as a research instrument to validate Holland’s theory; yields Holland types (Sharf, 2006)
Use subsets such as aspirations and competencies to measure one’s similarity to the six Holland types (Miller, 1997)
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The Self-Directed Search can be a helpful tool for guidance counselors
Most appropriate for use with high schoolers, versions adapted for middle schoolers
25% of students taking the Self-Directed Search make errors in scoring the instrument, 10% of those are serious=trained proctor should be available to assist students
(Miller, 1997)
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Incoming freshmen, freshmen orientation Offer it during the first few weeks of
school to willing students during study hall, break, or lunch
Psychology, Home economics, or technology class
In conjunction with FAFSA meetings, parent meetings
Join forces with athletic teams and organizations
VALIDITY OF THE SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
The degree to which a person’s expressed interests relate to their inventory results
High rates of validity are between 48-64% (depending on sex and age)
1977, a group of high school freshmen took the inventory 40%/men, 66% women Eventual occupation or field of entry was the
predicted variable Validity is comparable to other inventories in
it’s class (Krieshok, 1987)
RELIABILITY OF THE SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
O’Connell at the University of Maryland facilitated a study to determine test-retest reliability
65 subjects were administered the SDS during freshman orientation and 7-10 months later
Results showed little change in code Unreliability= individuals scoring their
own booklets is a source of unrealiability
CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
27 million people world wide Other versions formed: Canadian,
Spanish, Chinese Edition for those with limited reading
skills Sharf, 2006
CALIFORNIA OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE SYSTEM
COPS, CAPS, COPES Career Clusters
Science Technology Outdoor Business Clerical Communication Arts Service
Results from inventories matched with career clusters
KUDER CAREER SEARCH WITH PERSON MATCH
Dr. Frederic Kuder 6 career clusters
Outdoor/Mechanical Science/Technical Arts/Communication Social/Personal
Services Sales/Management Business
Operations Student interests = interest profiles of
people in different occupations
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Purpose and Use Designed to assist in career decision-making
process 1st step - provides information for future career
exploration Match inventory results with career clusters Explore occupations within career clusters Should not be sole source of information
Best Practices Once in middle school Twice in high school
FREQUENCY AND RANGE
COPS Broad range
COPS, COPS P, COPS II, COPS R, COPS PIC Frequency
19,000 per year norm base 7th -12th English
KCS with Person Match Range
Middle school to adult More effective with age
Frequency KCS with Person Match
Total ~2 million Secondary 1.3 million
VALIDITY & RELIABILITY
COPS Knapp, Knapp, & Knapp-Lee, 1985
60 to 74% accurate for prediction of career choice or college major
Knapp, Knapp, & Buttafuoco , 1978 45% same highest for 2 successive years ~80% same two highest 93% same for top three
KCS with Person Match Zytowski & Laing, 1978
51% employed in predicted occuptation
Compared 89% match top three in COPS and KCS(EDITS)
NARRATIVE CAREER COUNSELING
Based on the principle that life events and experiences can be organized into stories that can lead to effective change.
Narrative career counseling links the past, present, and future through a narrative form (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009).
The student is the expert in the session and is the author and the main character of her career story (Eppler, Olsen, & Hidano, 2009).
Narrative career counseling aligns with the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) standards in the promotion of career competencies (American School Counselor Association, 2003).
RESEARCH
Narrative career counseling has been found to work well with students, as it allows them to be the experts in their own lives (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009)
Research has also shown that narrative career counseling works well with students dealing with parental divorce. Adolescents from divorced families have poorer
academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes that their peers from intact families (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009)
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
• Brott's "storied approach“ (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009): Co-Construction Process, Construction Process,
Deconstruction Process• Biblionarrative technique (Eppler et al., 2009):
a combination of oral and written story that can be revised together throughout academic year
• Displaced communication (Eppler at al., 2009): focus on activities and materials with which students are
comfortable and engage the student in indirect communication to discover their story
• The use of stories (Eppler et al., 2009): promotes reading skills while creating discussion on
career exploration
AGE GROUP/GRADES
Children: Using stories encourages rapport building because the children’s
own choices of words are used and the counselor collaborates with the child (Eppler et al., 2009)
Adolescents:• First, adolescents have a strong desire for autonomy.
Narrative career counseling requires the adolescent to be the primary author and actor.
• Second, adolescents believe that their thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes are more accurate than others' interpretations.
• Finally, adolescents are resistant to interventions that may be interpreted as personal criticism (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009).
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Narrative career counseling is fairly new to the career counseling field, so there is a limited amount of empirical support for this approach.
This approach may be difficult for beginning counselors because of the lack of structured techniques and the lack of specific inventories. (McIlveen & Patton, 2007)
CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
Benefits of Narrative career counseling:• Clients tell their life and career stories from the context of
their experiences, allowing the client context and worldview to be integrated (Toporek & Flamer, 2009).
• Effective with marginalized groups where storytelling and narration are historically valued (Toporek & Flamer, 2009).
• School counselors using narrative counseling must be sensitive to the differences in counseling adolescents versus adults. Some adolescent students may not have moved into
Piaget's formal-operational stage, which typically begins around sixth grade at age 11 or 12 (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009).
DISCOVER
Research-based assessments: career-relevant interests, abilities, and job values World-of-Work Map organizes occupations into six clusters, parallel to
Holland's Hexagon Comprehensive, developmental guidance process:
identify strengths and needs, make good career decisions, and build a plan based on their personal profiles
Complete, current databases: occupations, college majors, schools and training institutions, financial
aid/scholarships, and military options Develop good job-seeking skills:
effective resumes, cover letters, job applications, and interviewing skills
Serves persons from middle school through adulthood(http://www.act.org/discover/)
RESEARCH
The DISCOVER World-of-Work Map: An extension of John Holland's hexagon (26 career areas) How interests, abilities, and job values relate to each other and to career options Provides a simple yet comprehensive overview of the work world Encourage users to explore families of related occupations before moving on to specific
occupations Interest inventory:
Not occupational titles or specific job duties Assess basic interests while minimizing the effects of sex-role connotations Results are visually linked to career options via the World-of-Work Map
Ability inventory: 15 abilities (6-10) , important work-relevant abilities-----sales, leadership, organization,
and manual dexterity Job values inventory:
Uses the World-of-Work Map to link work values (e.g., authority, public contact, physical activity) to career options and to interests and abilities.
Research Support for DISCOVER Assessment Components summarizes a small part of the research supporting DISCOVER assessments
AGE GROUPS/GRADES
People in Grade 6 or higher: Grade6 click on Occupational tab, then “By the World-of-Work Map” Grade 6-7: take the Interest Inventory Grade 8: take the Interest and Abilities Inventories Grade 9 or above: take Interest, Abilities, and Values Inventories
(Super’s career developmental theory)
Used for High school Four-year college Two year college Professional/graduate school Career/technical training Military service Immediate employment ( Osborne, W., 1997)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Based on more than 20 empirical investigations conducted by counselors and researchers over the past two decades, DISCOVER is effective: Help individuals make career decisions Clients who have specific career development needs Other kinds of career counseling Increase an individual’s:
Career decidedness and occupational certainty Career maturity Level of career development: Super’s career developmental theory Career decision-making self-efficacy Vocational identity Career exploration behavior (http://www.act.org/discover/)
CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS
Ability self-estimates self-confident vs. modest
Interests value of education (study vs. work, sports)
certain school subjects (math, science) Job values
Individualism VS Collectivism Social attitudes toward jobs
MBTI – MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
-Based off the work of Carl Jung -Created by Katherine and Isabel Briggs-Reports a person’s preferred ways of attending to the world-4 Letters representing your preferences (16 combinations):
Where you focus your attention — Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
The way you take in information — Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)
The way you make decisions — Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
How you deal with the outer world — Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
RESEARCH
-Used in middle schools to help teachers know what learning styles work best for their students
-Adaptations can then be made in teaching styles
-Type can help students understand, while different from peers, still normal
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLICATION
-Often used in psychology or interpersonal related classes or for team building
-Helps to improve communication and decision making (Watkins & Campbell, 2000)
AGE GROUPS/GRADES
-Used most often for older students and adults – often at the college level
-Isabel Myers designed to use this for a wide age range and for multiple presenting issues (Watkins & Campbell, 2000)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
-Younger students yield scores with lower reliability than did adults 20 years and older (Capraro & Capraro)
-Higher achieving students yield higher reliability than do lower achieving students (Capraro & Capraro)
-Validity may be questionable because no evidence to show positive relation between MBTI and success within an occupation (Pittenger, 1993)
LEARN MORE INDIANA
Learn More Indiana helps students and parents: Check out colleges and career training
programs Explore different careers including the
fastest growing Indiana occupations Keep academics on track through grad-
specific checklists and tips for supporting life-long learning
Find ways to save and pay for college
INTEREST INVENTORIES
Career Clickers eXpanded- A more detailed bank of questions to help connect individuals to possible careers that may interest them.
Career Clickers eXpress- Use these tools to find out what jobs might be best for you and how to get into the career you’ve always wanted.
Career One Stop- It is designed to provide information on high growth, in-demand occupations along with the skills and education needed to attain those jobs.
Career Party- Career Party is a very short career interest inventory for students. It quickly helps students get a code that can then be entered into the “Career Profiles” section of the learn more website.
Drive of Your Life- Drive of Your Life is a Web-based video game designed to help middle-school students learn more about themselves and their options for the future.
“DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE”
Career exploration game based on Holland’s Codes
Specifically for middle-school and high school students
Allows students to answer questions about themselves to learn what themselves and careers that interest them on a “virtual drive”
Created specifically for Indiana students by IYI, funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc
http://www.driveofyourlife.org/
RESEARCH
Last school year: 1,530 schools used “Drive of Your Life” 103,000 students in the state of Indiana. 223 Youth Serving Organizations (not for
profits, after school programs, churches) 923 youth
Used state wide so it should cross all SES, race, and genders, but these statistics are not tracked by IYI
DOE tracks the free and reduced lunch profile of each school though
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Lesson 1:Introduction of Drive of Your Life (15 minutes)
Lesson 2:Log on to Drive of Your Life (20 minutes)
Lesson 3:Customize your ride (45 minutes) Lesson 4:Personal Style Assessment (20
minutes) Lesson 5: Plan your trip (40 minutes) Lesson 6: Jump in and drive (40 minutes) Lesson 7: Conclusion and print out (20 minutes)
WHEN TO USE “DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE”
Learn more Indiana recommends 6th grade
Created for Middle School students, but students from 5th grade through high school teachers have found it helpful
(Learn More Indiana, 2007)
Primarily used by middle schools with the bulk of the students in 6th grade
(K. Coffman, personal communication, April 4, 2011)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Learn More Indiana collects data through student surveys to inform schools, communities and policy-makers about student postsecondary aspirations, perceived barriers and access needs.
These surveys also provide a way to link students directly with Indiana’s colleges and universities and provide valuable information to improve school counseling and communication efforts. (Learn More Indiana, 2007)
“Drive of your Life” was created in 2005. At this point, students who have used this program are not yet going on to college.
Indiana Youth Institute is in the process of doing an evaluation to
see its effectiveness on college going rates and college success. (K. Coffman, personal communication, April 4, 2011)
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
JA Worldwide is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. (Junior Achievement, 2011)
Multiple lessons depending on the age group JA is a program used in the school to help students
gain a better knowledge of real world jobs. Focus is entrepreneurship, global business, and
finances(Junior Achievement, 2011)
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
Junior Achievement Programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to: Generate wealth and effectively manage it Create jobs which help the community Apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace
(Junior Achievement, 2011) Student put these lessons into action and
learn the value of contributing to their communities. (Junior Achievement, 2011)
RESEARCH
JA Worldwide reaches 9.7 million students per year (Junior Achievement, 2011)
379,968 classrooms and afterschool locations. (Junior Achievement, 2011)
JA programs are taught by volunteers in inner cities, suburbs, and rural areas throughout the United States of America (Junior Achievement, 2011)
122 countries around the world (Junior Achievement, 2011).
IMPLEMENTATION IN SCHOOLS
In-class and after-school programs Teachers or school counselors Volunteers Psycho-educational presentations and
group work Grants
AGE GROUPS
Elementary BizTown (Junior Achievement, 2011)
Middle School Financial Literacy
High School Careers with a Purpose (Junior
Achievement, 2011) Job Shadowing
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Hired Worldwide Institute for Research and Evaluation (WIRE) to complete longitudinal studies of program (Junior Achievement, 2004).
assessment and evaluation showed students had a better understanding of free
enterprise Students were more likely to be employed Students were more likely to enroll in postsecondary
education than were other same-age students (Junior Achievement, 2004)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
JA students were more likely than students in general to matriculate to college immediately after high school. (Junior Achievement, 2004)
Perhaps most importantly, JA students were significantly more confident about their ability to complete college than were students in general (Junior Achievement, 2004).
JA students, as compared to students in general, were significantly more likely to describe themselves as taking responsibility for their behaviors and having a positive self-concept. These two characteristics, according to the psychological literature, correlate positively with success in adult life (Junior Achievement, 2004).
ASCA STANDARDS
C:A1.3 Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests and motivations
C:A1.8 Pursue and develop competency in areas of interest C:A1.9 Develop hobbies and vocational interests C:A2.6 Learn how to write a résumé C:A2.7 Develop a positive attitude toward work and learning C:B1.2 Identify personal skills, interests and abilities and relate them to
current career choice C:B2.2 Assess and modify their educational plan to support career C:B2.4 Select course work that is related to career interests C:C1.3 Identify personal preferences and interests influencing career
choice and success C:C1.7 Understand that work is an important and satisfying means of
personal expression C:C2.1 Demonstrate how interests, abilities and achievement relate to
achieving personal, social, educational and career goals
REFERENCES
American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School
Counseling Programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Capraro, R. M., & Capraro, M.M. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator score reliability across studies: A
meta-analytic reliability generalization study. Texas A&M University.
EDITS Online. (2010). A brief summary of the reliability and validity of the COPSystem
assessments. Retrieved April 11, 2011 from http://www.edits.net/resourcecenter/testing-
supplementals/63-newsletter-1.html
Eppler, C., Olsen, J. A., & Hidano, L. (2009). Using stories in elementary school counseling: Brief,
narrative techniques. Professional School Counseling, 12, 387-391.
Indiana Youth Institute. (2006). Drive of your life. Retrieved from www.driveofyourlife.org
REFERENCES
Junior Achievement (2004). The impact on students of participation in JA Worldwide: Selected
cumulative and longitudinal findings. Retrieved from http://www.ja.org/files/long_summary.pdf
Junior Achievement (2011). JA Job Shadow. Retrieved from
http://www.ja.org/programs/programs_job_shadow_obj.shtml
Junior Achievement (2011). News Room: Fact Sheet. Retrieved from
http://www.ja.org/about/about_news_fact.shtml
Kise, J. (2011). Using type at an urban middle school: Building relationships and improving student
performance. Retrieved from http://www.mbtitoday.org/
Knapp, R. R., Knapp, L., & Buttafuoco, P. M. (1978). Interest changes and the classification of
occupations. Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 11, 14–19.
REFERENCES
Knapp, R. R., Knapp, L., & Knapp-Lee, L. (1985). Occupational interest measurement and subsequent
career decisions: A predictive follow-up study of the COPSystem Interest Inventory. Journal of
Counseling Psychology, 32,348-354. DOI:10.1037/0022-0167.32.3.348
Krieshok, T.S. (1987). Review of the self-directed search. Journal of Counseling and Development, 9.
Learn More Indiana. (2007). Learn more Indiana: Your college and career connection. Retrieved from
http://learnmoreindiana.org
McIlveen, P. & Patton, W. (2007). Narrative career counseling: Theory and exemplars of practice.
Australian Psychologist, 42, 226-235. doi: 10.1080/00050060701405592
Miller, M.J. (1997). Error rates on two forms of the self-directed search and satisfaction with the
results. Journal of Employment Counseling, 12.
REFERENCES
O’Connell, T.J. & Sedlacek, W.E. (1971). The reliability of holland’s self-directed search for educational and
vocational planning. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/d etailmin i.jsp?
_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED065524&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED06
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Occupational Interest Survey. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 25, 209.
Osborne, W. L., (1997), Career development, assessment, and counseling : applications of the Donald E. Super
C-DAC approach, Alexandria, Va. : American Counseling Association.
Pittenger, D. J. (1993). Measuring the MBTI and coming up short. Journal of Career Planning and Placement.
Sharf, S.S. (2006). Applying Career Development Theory to Counseling. California: Thomson Wadsworth.
REFERENCES
Thomas, D. A., Gibbons, M. M. (2009). Narrative theory: A career counseling approach
for adolescents of divorce. Professional School Counseling, 12, 223-229.
Toporek, R. L. & Flamer, C. (2009). The résumé's secret identity: A tool for narrative
exploration in multicultural career counseling. Journal of Employment Counseling,
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Watkins Jr., E. C., & Campbell, V. L. (2000). Testing and Assessment in Counseling
Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, London.
Zytowski, D. G. & Laing, J. (1978). Validity of other-gender-normed scales on the Kuder.
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