Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth

Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this deficiency, we develop a framework for curriculum choice, taking into account ability and preferences for academic and vocational work. We test model predictions using detailed transcript and earnings information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997). Our results are twofold. First, students positively sort into vocational courses, suggesting that the belief that low-ability students are funneled into vocational coursework is unlikely true. Second, we find higher earnings among students taking more upper-level vocational courses—a nearly 2 percent wage premium for each additional year, yet we find no gain from introductory vocational courses. These results suggest: (1) policies limiting students' ability to take vocational courses may not be welfare-enhancing, and (2) the benefits of vocational coursework accrue to those who focus on depth over breadth.

Who Should Be Deciding What to Be Taught in Schools? Perspectives From Secondary School Teacher Education in Malawi

This study sought to gather perspectives on “who” and “what” should determine choice of the curriculum for secondary school teacher education. Five heads of departments for secondary school teacher education and 3 cohorts of secondary school teacher trainees participated in the study. Findings reveal mixed perspectives on determinants of curriculum choice. However, both sets of respondents agreed that there is need for increased and improved public participation in curriculum development activities. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in this report.

Beliefs about Future Curriculum

This article investigates how emotions of avoidance affect curriculum choice in a science classroom and also evaluates a research-based social form of learning for changing emotions of avoidance towards a specific science topic (arachnids) for a population of preservice teachers. It was found that there is a strong invariant structural relationship between emotions of avoidance and beliefs about incorporation of science concepts about arachnids. However, participation in the arachnid learning activities decreased emotions of avoidance and increased beliefs about incorporation into a science classroom. The implications of these findings are that social forms of learning can change avoidance emotions and beliefs of teachers and may even be effective for addressing other classroom topics that are socially sensitive, such as biological evolution or climate change.