Running Head: DATA-BASED INTERVENTION 1

Data-Based Intervention Project Executive Summary

Brooke Creamer

Georgia Southern University

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Introduction

Career development and exploration is an integral part of today’s education system.

According to the Georgia Department of Education (2015), educators in Georgia are responsible

for providing the tools, knowledge and resources that young people along with their parents need

to make these critical education and career-related decisions. As an aspiring counselor, I will also

be an educator. Therefore it will be my duty and responsibility to help guide students along the

path of becoming functional and valuable citizens in today’s society. The Georgia Department of

Education has mandated 17 career clusters that are to be presented to all students in public

education at the completion of 5th grade. By doing so, students will have a broader span of career

knowledge and opportunities that await them in the future. When reviewing my site’s school

improvement plan, I chose to focus on the annual measurable objective of increasing grade

specific career awareness, particularly for 1st grade. First grade is required by the state to be

exposed to three different career clusters. In the ASCA National Model, there are three major

areas of development that the model focuses on, which include academic, personal/social, and

career development. For this intervention, I specifically focus on the American School

Counseling Association (2004) Career Development Standard A: Students will acquire the skills

to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career

decisions. To enhance career awareness I chose to complete career guidance lessons for the

students and plan a career day for the school. According to Akos, P., Cockman, C., & Strickland,

C. (2007) classroom guidance lessons are an efficient way for school counselors to inform

students about school-wide opportunities, distribute information (e.g., educational resources,

postsecondary opportunities), and address student needs. Classroom guidance is also an

important part of the ASCA National Model. The desired outcome is that by exposing the

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students to more career options through classroom guidance and career day, their range of career

knowledge and awareness will be increased.

Methods

The need and purpose for this data based intervention was based on the school’s

improvement plan, mandates as required by the GADOE, and ASCA standards. All first and

second grade students are to be exposed to six career clusters, three clusters per grade. In the

beginning of the school year my site supervisor and I conducted one minute meetings with every

1st and 2nd grade student on an Ipad using an electronic survey. We asked a total of five general

questions, one included “What do you want to be when you grow up?” After completion of the

meetings I looked at the data to compare 1st and 2nd grade responses to this specific question. It

was clear that 1st graders had significantly less knowledge about a variety of careers. The data

results are in Appendix A. Out of 158 total responses, there were 31 total careers mentioned. The

students who were undecided and the top 4 careers mentioned added together made up almost

74% of the responses. The top 4 careers mentioned were police officer, teacher, doctor, and

firefighter. The remaining 26% of responses consisted of various careers.

In order for the 1st graders to expand their knowledge about careers and raise awareness

they needed to be exposed to careers they had never heard of before. The methods of bringing

about this awareness include classroom guidance and career day. Since my school has ten 1st

grade classrooms, I decided to only conduct classroom guidance with five classes for the sake of

time. The career guidance lessons can be found in Appendix F. All ten 1st grade classes

participated in career day, however. I conducted three classroom guidance lessons with each of

the five classes. So, each class received a total of three different lessons. Each lesson focused on

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one specific career cluster. Over a total of three weeks, five classes received three career

guidance lessons, one lesson per week. The clusters were agriculture, law/public safety, and

transportation. At the beginning of each lesson, I handed out a survey for them to complete. The

first pre-survey question asked them generally if they knew anything about the particular cluster

I was presenting on that day. After I completed my lesson, the students then answered post-

survey questions. The questions asked to see if they had learned about at least one new career,

could they name a new career, and write the name of the career. At the very end I asked the

students to draw a picture of themselves participating in the career they named. This helped

illustrate understanding, and hopefully aided in memory retention.

The second intervention I chose to implement involved hosting a career day at the school

for all K-2 students. In an effort to increase career awareness, I thought it would be beneficial to

bring in guest speakers from various careers and have them discuss their career with the students.

The guest speakers brought pictures, materials to distribute, equipment, and some actively

demonstrated real life scenarios related to their job duties. I believe learning from direct

experience is very valuable. Student participation was incorporated into some of the guest

speakers’ presentations and the students really seemed to benefit from this experience. Bandura

(1977) stated, “In the social learning system, new patterns of behavior can be acquired through

direct experience or by observing the behavior of others.” (p. 3) Rather than the students simply

listening to me talk about different jobs through classroom guidance, they were able to gain

direct experience and interaction during career day. McGaugh (2013) stated, “….much evidence

indicates that emotional arousal enhances the storage of memories, thus serving to create,

selectively, lasting memories of our more important experiences.” (p. 10402) When events out of

the norm take place in schools it often heightens arousal and excitement in the students.

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Hopefully, the students were so intrigued and genuinely enjoyed career day that it left a lasting

impression.

Evaluation & Results

In order for school counselors to be held accountable and their practices to be considered

beneficial there should be continued professional development. Intervention evaluation should be

considered to see if the interventions actually worked. Carey and Dimmett (2008) developed a

model of evidence based practices that included a segment of intervention evaluation which

essentially means implementing a method of analysis to see if the intervention was successful.

After completing classroom guidance and career day, it was hoped that career awareness among

five 1st grade classrooms would be increased.

An example of the survey given and the data from the pre/post surveys can be found in

Appendix B. The method of calculation for the classroom guidance surveys included combining

all five classes’ responses and averaging each response to each question. For example, the

second question on the survey was “Do you feel like you’ve learned about at least 1 new job

today?” and the answer choices were “yes” or “no”. The number of yes’s and no’s were added up

across all five classes and averaged by the total number of students who completed the survey.

The same method was done for number 1 and 3 on the survey. The averages were indicative of

the students’ knowledge prior to the lesson and after the completion of the lesson.

At the beginning of the lessons, it was apparent that students did not have much

knowledge about each career cluster. However, when looking at the post-data from all three

surveys that corresponded with each lesson, it was apparent that students learned about new

careers during the lesson. It was also apparent that the majority was able to name a career and

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draw an illustration. The desired outcome was for students to learn about new careers they had

little prior knowledge about. The data results indicated the desired outcome was fulfilled.

After the conclusion of career day I met with each student in the five classes I completed

classroom guidance with. I conducted a second, one minute meeting with each student. An

example of the survey is included in Appendix C. I used this survey to assess their career

knowledge and see if their future career decisions had changed any from our first one minute

meetings. I compared each class individually with their previous responses from our first one

minute meetings. The results are in Appendix D. For example, class #2 in the beginning stated 8

different careers out of 18 students. After surveying this class the second time, they stated 9 new

careers that were not previously mentioned. Therefore, their career options were more varied

after being exposed to career guidance lessons and career day. Overall, each class offered more

career options during their second survey than their first. Also, the number of students who were

undecided decreased from 7 to 4. In the beginning, out of 158 students only 31 careers were

mentioned when surveyed. After the data based intervention, 81 students were surveyed and 30

total careers were mentioned as their “primary” career choice. This data can be found in

Appendix E. So, that’s half the number of students and the same number of careers mentioned! I

also asked the students when surveyed to offer me their “secondary” career choices. They were

able to offer 20 more career choices. That’s a total of 50 new career options. So, 50 new career

options were offered by 81 students and in the beginning only 31 career options were offered by

158 students. Pre-intervention data showed only 26% of responses being various careers other

than the top 4 careers mentioned. Post-intervention data showed an increase to 54% of responses

being various careers other than the top 4. The percent of variation more than doubled. However,

the top 4 careers mentioned did not vary much from pre to post intervention. During the first one

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minute meetings the top 4 careers were police officer, doctor, teacher, and firefighter. Post data

results show the top 4 career choices being police offer, vet, teacher, and firefighter. Doctor was

replaced with vet in the top 4. Overall, the results are indicative of an increase in career

awareness in 1st graders.

Conclusions & Implications

Overall, when examining the data it shows that the students benefited from the career

guidance lessons. Their perception of knowledge about each cluster from the surveys depicted an

increase in understanding and awareness. The data percentages increased for each post survey

question following the classroom guidance lesson. However, a limitation can also be discussed in

regards to the pre/post survey. The survey was given at the beginning and right at the end of each

lesson. So, the material was still fresh on the students mind and it took very little effort for them

to remember the careers that were just discussed to put it down on paper. Retention is not

accurately measured in this fashion. The immediacy of the survey could skew data results. For

future recommendations, it may be beneficial to allot a certain time period between the lesson

and giving the post surveys. Career day seemed to be beneficial in regards to increasing the data,

however there is not a conclusive way for me to know if it truly benefitted the students since I

did not gather any data solely based on observations at career day. In the future, students could

complete a perception survey to inform school officials about the usefulness/benefits or lack

thereof of career day. I also desired to have more variety of careers available for the students on

career day. Being from a small town the variety of careers and availability of professionals is

limited as compared to a larger metropolitan city. Also, the some of the career clusters assigned

to 1st grade by the GADOE were already familiar to this age group. For example, police officer

and firefighter fall into these career clusters and they were the top career choices stated by the 1st

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graders during the pre-intervention one minute meetings. I would like to see the difference in the

data results if some of the career clusters were different for this age group. Perhaps, being

clusters that this age of students is completely unfamiliar with. I also believe teacher

involvement and reinforcement in the classroom would be very beneficial. Teachers can

implement some type of career portfolio or personality/career assessment in the classroom

setting to strengthen and enhance the students’ knowledge about career development and

awareness.

Overall, the data from career guidance lessons and career day show an increase in career

awareness. The percent of students who were “undecided” about a career decreased and the

number of career options mentioned in each class increased. Following the interventions, a

smaller number of students (81) were able to give me just as many career options (30) as double

the amount of students (158) were able to give me before the interventions. I believe the

interventions implemented were successful and can be used for further implementations of career

readiness. These results can be used as a guiding tool for future educators when implementing

new and creative ways for career development. Gysbers (2013) stated, “Helping students become

career ready begins in elementary school and continues on into middle school and high school.”

(p. 284) I believe this to be a valid statement, even though we should take into consideration the

cognitive developmental level of this age of students when implementing career awareness and

readiness standards. As a future school counselor and educator I will be collaborating with other

educators from all facets to deliver help and guidance in all areas of development for students

whether it’s academic, personal/social, or career development. As a professional, I must continue

to research and evaluate new methods of delivery so that I am competent in my methods while

also benefitting the welfare and future of my students.

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References

Akos, P., Cockman, C., & Strickland, C. (2007). Differentiating classroom guidance.

Professional School Counseling, 10 (5), 455-463.

American School Counselor Association (2004). ASCA National Standards for Students.

Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/

Bandura, Albert. (1971) Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.

Carey, J., & Dimmitt, C. (2008). A model for evidence-based elementary school counseling:

Using school data, research, and evaluation to enhance practice. The Elementary School

Journal, 108(5), 422-430.

Georgia Department of Education (2015) Retrieved from http://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-

Instruction-and-Assessment/CTAE/Pages/Career-Development.aspx

Gysbers, Norman C..(2013) Career-Ready Students: A Goal of Comprehensive School

Counseling Program. Career Development Quarterly, 61(3), 283-288.

McGaugh J. L. (2013). Making lasting memories: remembering the significant. Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 10402–10407.

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

Pre/Post Survey Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resource

Pre:

1. Can you name a job in the Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resource cluster?

Yes No

______________________________________________

Post:

2. Do you feel like you have learned about at least 1 new job today?

Yes No

3. Can you name one job you’ve learned about today? If yes, write the name of the job.

Yes No

Job name:_____________________________________________________________

Draw a picture of yourself doing the job and write what you are doing in the picture.

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Appendix C (Post Intervention Survey)

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Appendix D

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Appendix E

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Appendix F

Three career guidance lessons