The impact of a career planning and decision-making course on first year community college students

Abstract

The present study was focused on higher education settings and the implementation of career education programs to promote the career development of their students. The major purpose of this study was to determine if the course, Career Planning and Decision-Making (1980), which was developed by Appalachia Educational Laboratory, was effective in assisting Freshmen community college students in developing their career planning and decision-making skills and enhancing their career decision-making behavior. The secondary purpose of the study was to obtain the students' evaluations of the course. The Career Planning and Decision-Making Student Surveys, the Assessment of Career Decision- Making (ACDM), the end-of-unit evaluations, and a structured interview were used to gather data. Analysis of variance was utilized to determine the significance of the difference between the groups on the pretest scores at the -05 level of significance. The differences following treatment were determined by repeated measures analysis of variance using the .05 level of significance.

The course, Career Planning and Decision-Making (CPDM) was taught during the Winter Quarter, 1981, at a small rural community college in Virginia. The population consisted of forty five freshmen in transfer programs who volunteered to enroll in the course. From this group assignment was made to the experimental group (N=18) and the control group (N=18).

Analysis of the results revealed: (1) significant differences between CPDM and non-CPDM students at the .05 level of significance on achievement of course objectives as measured by the Student Surveys and (2) significant differences at the .05 level of significance between CPDM and non-CPDM students on the Rational style of decision-making, as measured by the ACDM. There were no significant differences at the .05 level on (a) progress made with regard to implementation of the decision to go to college, (b) progress made with regard to selecting a major, and (c) progress made with regard to selecting an occupation to pursue after college completion, as measured by the ACDM. A review of the structured interview and end-of-unit responses indicated that the students felt they had been stimulated by the course, in a positive way, in their career planning. They recommended that the course become a permanent course offering at the freshmen level. Through a comprehensive analysis of the findings, the conclusion was reached that overall the course, Career Planning and Decision-Making was effective in assisting college students in developing their career planning and decision-making skills as well as enhancing their career decision making behavior.