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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
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