Dissertation Theses
Career decision making self-efficacy and outcome expectations in secondary student school-to-work transition
- Career decision making self-efficacy and outcome expectations in secondary student school-to-work transition
- 2007
-
- Hong Kong
-
- 1997.7 onwards
-
- Secondary Education
- The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among students' performance goals, vocational identity and career-exploration behaviours and to examine the effects of their personal attributes on these variables.
Based on the social cognitive view of the school-to-work transition proposed by Lent, Hackett and Brown (1999), the study presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for career counselling, with special emphasis on enhancing adolescents' career-exploration behaviours and work-related motivations and attitudes. The career readiness model proposed in this study deals with interactions among a number of variables that affect career decision-making self-efficacy, career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, career-exploration behaviour, vocational identity and performance goals. It explains and illustrates the paths and factors that play a significant part in the development of career readiness.
The target population was secondary fourth form and secondary sixth form students in Hong Kong. A total of 1216 students from 14 secondary schools participated in this study. Gender had a more significant impact on scores than the effects of different backgrounds. Male respondents generally had lower mean scores than female respondents in most variables. It was also found that the standard deviations of the male students' scores from were greater than those of female students. Apart from gender differences, there were no significant differences among students from various grade levels and streams of study. The results support the hypothesis that career decision-making self-efficacy in plays a significant role in career decision-making outcome expectations, career decision-making intentions, exploration behaviour, performance goals and vocational identity of secondary school students. Most of the structural paths in the model were found to be significant.
The study concludes that students' self-efficacy in career decision-making is a crucial factor, which, together with outcome expectations, significantly affects performance goals and exploration activities, and strengthens subsequent effort. Students develop an affinity for career-exploration and decision-making activities when they have sufficient self-efficacy and expect positive outcomes. They normally establish goals for sustaining or increasing their involvement in these activities and maintain high performance goals, which, turn, increase the likelihood of active engagement.
The study also shows that a strong intention to develop one's career decision-making capacities may significantly enhance exploration behaviour, which Phillips and Blustein (1994) have found to be a vital element of career readiness and job choice. Exploration behaviour is directly correlated to the development of realistic career expectations (Stumpf & Hartman, 1984) and it enables individuals to determine the suitability of certain work environments (Stumpf et al., 1983). The process of career exploration should therefore be essential preparation for students' job searching.
The findings of this study may be used to develop individual and group interventions that will nurture students' school-to-work transitions. - EdD
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Hong Kong
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0584
-
- English
- Dissertation Theses
-
- 9780549483830
- https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/9a527f97
- 2010-12-16
Recent Dissertation Theses
Development and implementation of a learning analytics tool to support teacher orchestration of collaborative science inquiry in a mobile learning environmentDissertation Theses
A qualitative study of the experiences of the parents in supporting their dyslexic children in secondary schoolsDissertation Theses
Evaluating the effectiveness of a self-developed financial education programme among primary school students in Hong KongDissertation Theses
有家長參與的幼兒生命教育課程: 以香港幼稚園的幼兒生命教育課程作個案研究Dissertation Theses
Curriculum intentions, classroom realities: The learning and teaching of English reading to Hong Kong secondary studentsDissertation Theses
融合小學視力障礙學生融合課程發展研究Dissertation Theses
Sing by ear: A study of motivation, informal learning, and musicianship of popular music education in Hong KongDissertation Theses
E-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education in Hong Kong and Mainland ChinaDissertation Theses