Learning Transformation Perceptions of Preservice Second Career Teachers

Teachers’ shortage has become a critical issue in most countries in the world. One of the solutions has been the initiation of short-term teacher education programmes which attract adult career changers who enter the programme with prior working experiences and world knowledge. However, the process of transferring previous knowledge is challenging and teachers need to navigate new horizons. The aim of the study is to identify shifts in students’ perceptions regarding the teaching profession, and what experiences prompted the shifts. The research was conducted among 15 students in a teacher education college in Israel. The analysis of interviews exposed five main themes where students displayed shifts of perceptions. The themes relate directly to the two interrelated key concepts of second career teachers and transformative learning. The synergy between the two concepts created tension, dilemmas and dissonances which generated spaces for learning and fertile ground for shifting in frame of reference.

How parental viewpoint and personality affect gifted child outcomes

A 17-year longitudinal follow-up of 56 American gifted children investigates and gives examples of a variety of social, emotional, and career outcomes for children who are in the same intellectual ranges. Evaluated for 5 Levels of Giftedness 1 as children, the subjects’ intellectual abilities are compared within and across five ability levels of typical to exceptionally and profoundly gifted. The subjects’ current age range is 22 to 43. Results indicate that it is the parental personality and viewpoint that most significantly make the difference in outcomes. That is, parental actions and advocacy on behalf of their gifted children are a function of their viewpoint and personality preference. Stated simply as one example: for parents who believe—hold the viewpoint that—either the school or their child should make changes in their behaviors, they often end up in recurring battles of the will rather than satisfactory or good results. When parents discover what works most naturally for their child’s ways of learning, they can take positive actions to find an environment that already exists or they can establish an environment that opens up a good “fit” not only in their child’s learning and academic realm, but in the social, emotional, and eventual adult career domains, as well.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT MODEL FOR WOMEN AFTER CHILDBIRTH

The article addresses the problem of obstacles to use the labour potential of women after childbirth. The aim of the study is to develop a post-natal career development support model for modern women, based on research on barriers to women's career advancement and promoting the balance of life between women's integration into the labour market and child upbringing. The study was developed in the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, the Institute of Education and Home Economics within the Master study programme Career Counsellor. A study on barriers to women's career development after childbirth were involved 647 respondents. An expert evaluation of the career development model for women was carried out with the participation of 4 experts in the field of career counselling. As a result of the study, the main obstacles for working age women / mothers were: lack of childcare services (245 respondents' answers); number of vacancies in the place of residence (151 respondents); insufficient partner support (110 respondents' answers). Experts' assessment allowed to conclude that the Career Development Support Model developed by the authors promotes a work-life balance between family life and work for women after childbirth. Results of the research could be used in the work of adult career counsellors.

Theory and Application to the Digitization of Young Human Capital Support

The chapter presents a review of a variety of theories and models of adopting and adapting new technological tools such as social media for young people and the impact of their outcomes such as employment, learning at work, and communication. The chapter tries to explain the influence of digital technologies on young adult career selection. The chapter encompasses four principles including self-concepts, adult learner experience, opinion polls, and readiness to learn. As youth workers are expected to be lifelong learners, and youth work itself is an area that continues to be established in learning settings, this chapter on the values of adult learners, alongside theories, helps learners to understand and create more practical learning environments.

Adults changing careers through university education: Making meaning of quantitative career assessment scores through an integrative structured interview

Orientation: Career change in adulthood is becoming a norm and university education is a pathway to new careers. Career psychologists are well positioned to assist adult career changers. Contemporary approaches to diverse client groups and integrating career assessment with narrative career counselling are needed. Research purpose: This article reports on an innovative approach to assisting adult career changers through the complementarity of an integrative structured interview (ISI) and the self-directed search (SDS) career assessment questionnaire. Motivation for the study: The overall aim of this research was to explore the career transition experiences of adult university learners. The secondary aims were to investigate the complementarity of quantitative career assessment (i.e. the SDS) and narrative interviewing (i.e. the ISI) and how adult university learners engaged with the ISI. This article reports on the secondary aims by considering excerpts from case study interviews. Research design, approach and method: This qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, multiple case study research presents case studies of two adult university learners: an Australian male student and a South African female student. Participants completed the SDS prior to engaging in a four-part semi-structured interview that incorporated the ISI. Main findings: The findings revealed that the participants told rich stories that related past, present and future life and work experiences to their SDS three-letter codes. Their stories revealed how quantitative career assessment scores and narrative career counselling may be integrated through a structured interview. Practical and managerial implications: Adult career changers told meaningful stories about their quantitative SDS scores. The findings suggest that narrative career counselling may be useful for adult career changers and that the ISI could provide a model for career psychologists who support them. Implications of the findings suggest that managers and human resource personnel working in organisations may assist adult career changers by offering them access to psychological support that uses quantitative career assessment as a foundation for career story telling. Contribution or value-add: The research provides an innovative response to challenges in career psychology to develop contemporary responses to diverse client groups and to integrate career assessment with narrative career counselling.

Study on adult career planning on adult education program and assessment of adaptive design model

This study explores adults‘ on-the-job current career planning and the selection trends of future development as the criteria for a training program design for adult education and the basis of the design model of adaptive assessment. This study regards the contents of the TTQS training process, the items, indicators, and standards of the Workforce Development Agency, and the occupational categories of the “Occupational Competency Standards”, as disclosed by the “Integrated Competency and Application Platform”, as the framework for the reference model; and probes into the impact of globalization, adult career planning, adult occupational training program design, and adaptive assessment, and adopts a questionnaire survey to understand the design model of the adaptive adult education program, in order to effectively implement adaptive assessment. The purposes are to assist adults to accomplish adaptive career planning, achieve their goals of vocational cultivation, and solve the problems of adult unemployment, in order to lead to successful adult employment and transfer to globalization workplaces to create positive career development.