Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of career readiness as an outcome of secondary schools and their intentions to teach employability skills in their classrooms. Additionally, the study sought to explore the impact of selected teacher demographics...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thiel, Brooke Louise
Format: Others
Published: North Dakota State University 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31856
id ndltd-ndsu.edu-oai-library.ndsu.edu-10365-31856
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-ndsu.edu-oai-library.ndsu.edu-10365-318562021-09-28T17:11:44Z Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions Thiel, Brooke Louise The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of career readiness as an outcome of secondary schools and their intentions to teach employability skills in their classrooms. Additionally, the study sought to explore the impact of selected teacher demographics on teachers’ perceptions of career readiness. The target population was secondary school teachers in North Dakota. Total study participants included 1,209 (N) teachers from a census sample of North Dakota teachers. Respondents completed a questionnaire which included two instruments intended to assess teachers’ perceptions of career readiness and their instructional intentions related to employability skills, as well as selected demographic questions. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that there is an association between teachers’ demographic characteristics and their perceptions of career readiness. Specifically, teachers who taught Career and Technical Education (CTE) and special education courses placed a higher level of importance on the development of career readiness than teachers who taught core academic and elective/other courses. Additionally, perceptions of career readiness were significantly more positive among teachers who had willingly engaged in more professional development related to the instruction of employability skills compared to those teachers who attended fewer workshops or who were required to attend workshops. Teachers who worked in school districts that required the assessment of employability skills had significantly more positive perceptions of career readiness than teachers who taught in schools that required fewer or no skills to be assessed. According to the findings, teachers’ intentions to teach employability skills can be predicted by their perceptions of career readiness. Consequently, increasing teachers’ positive perceptions of career readiness should increase their intentions to teach employability skills in their classrooms, thus fostering the development of career readiness among their students. Based upon the evidence collected through this study, school leaders and policy makers may be able to positively impact teachers’ perceptions of career readiness through engagement in meaningful professional development, implementation of effective policies regarding the assessment of employability skills, and utilization of consistent and clear communication regarding the purpose of career readiness development and its connection to employability skills. 2021-05-11T19:59:00Z 2021-05-11T19:59:00Z 2020 text/dissertation movingimage/video https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31856 NDSU policy 190.6.2 https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf application/pdf application/pdf video/mp4 North Dakota State University
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
description The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of career readiness as an outcome of secondary schools and their intentions to teach employability skills in their classrooms. Additionally, the study sought to explore the impact of selected teacher demographics on teachers’ perceptions of career readiness. The target population was secondary school teachers in North Dakota. Total study participants included 1,209 (N) teachers from a census sample of North Dakota teachers. Respondents completed a questionnaire which included two instruments intended to assess teachers’ perceptions of career readiness and their instructional intentions related to employability skills, as well as selected demographic questions. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that there is an association between teachers’ demographic characteristics and their perceptions of career readiness. Specifically, teachers who taught Career and Technical Education (CTE) and special education courses placed a higher level of importance on the development of career readiness than teachers who taught core academic and elective/other courses. Additionally, perceptions of career readiness were significantly more positive among teachers who had willingly engaged in more professional development related to the instruction of employability skills compared to those teachers who attended fewer workshops or who were required to attend workshops. Teachers who worked in school districts that required the assessment of employability skills had significantly more positive perceptions of career readiness than teachers who taught in schools that required fewer or no skills to be assessed. According to the findings, teachers’ intentions to teach employability skills can be predicted by their perceptions of career readiness. Consequently, increasing teachers’ positive perceptions of career readiness should increase their intentions to teach employability skills in their classrooms, thus fostering the development of career readiness among their students. Based upon the evidence collected through this study, school leaders and policy makers may be able to positively impact teachers’ perceptions of career readiness through engagement in meaningful professional development, implementation of effective policies regarding the assessment of employability skills, and utilization of consistent and clear communication regarding the purpose of career readiness development and its connection to employability skills.
author Thiel, Brooke Louise
spellingShingle Thiel, Brooke Louise
Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
author_facet Thiel, Brooke Louise
author_sort Thiel, Brooke Louise
title Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
title_short Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
title_full Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
title_fullStr Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
title_full_unstemmed Fostering Career Readiness Among Secondary Students: Teachers’ Perceptions and Instructional Intentions
title_sort fostering career readiness among secondary students: teachers’ perceptions and instructional intentions
publisher North Dakota State University
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31856
work_keys_str_mv AT thielbrookelouise fosteringcareerreadinessamongsecondarystudentsteachersperceptionsandinstructionalintentions
_version_ 1719486298224328704