How to integrate Career Education into English Teaching

1. How to integrate Career Education into English Teaching 文化國中 December 16, 2004

2. Presented by Mary Sue Sroda, PhD TESOL Consultant Yilan Teacher Training Center Yilan City E-Mail: sue.sroda@murraystate.edu

3. Outline • Introduction and overview • Definitions: What is Career Education? • Approaches and Perspectives • Levels of School-based initiatives • Classroom-based initiatives • Sample activities and projects • Workshop-developing your own activities (by discipline)

4. What do you want to be when you grow up? • Research shows that children as young as five years old can answer this question. In the US, popular answers from children are “ballerina,”“astronaut,”“doctor” and “President of the United States.” (This reflects the cultural value that choosing a career is considered an important decision.)

5. What is career education? To understand modern definitions of “career education,” it is useful to look back on very old perspectives of how people chose jobs and careers.

6. Old view of career choices #1:(really old) You have no real choice In ancient times, there weren’t that many jobs. A man might become a farmer, a tradesperson, an artisan, a soldier, a scholar, a religious person or a ruler. Women became wives and mothers and were responsible for raising the young. What job you got often depended on what your father did.

7. Old view of career choices #2: (slightly old) Your job is solely based on your ability The idea used to be that what you are good at automatically determines your job. If you were good at math, everyone assumed you would be an engineer even if you didn’t want to. Currently, ability still plays a role, but less of one.

8. Old view of career choices #3:(slightly old) Once you pick a career, the hard part is over. Up to a few years ago, a popular idea was that you got a job with one company and stayed with it until you retired. Now, in the US, many people change jobs or careers 2-3 times throughout his/her working life.

9. Definitions: Jobs, Occupations, Careers JOB: A JOB is a paid position requiring a group of specific attributes and skills that enable a person to perform tasks in an organization either part-time or full-time for a short or long duration.

10. Definitions: Jobs, Occupations, Careers OCCUPATION: An OCCUPATION is defined as a group of similar jobs found in different industries or organizations.

11. Definitions: Jobs, Occupations, Careers CAREER: A CAREER is the sequence and variety of occupations (paid and unpaid) which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. More broadly, ‘career’ includes life roles, leisure activities, learning and work.

12. Example: Sue Sroda My Career is as scholar and researcher in Linguistics, specifically in the area of second language acquisition. My Occupation is teaching linguistics and training people to be English Teachers. My Job is to teach courses at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, and direct the Graduate Program in Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages.

13. The new reality in choosing careers (1)There are many options. Young people face a vast number of choices in occupations and careers. One website called “Career Matters” lists 513 very different possible occupations and careers. (http://www.ilc.org/cfmx/CM/index.cfm)

14. The new reality in choosing careers (2)Modern society considers career choice important. We cite statistics such as “36% percent of all your waking time as an adult will be spent at work.” This can lead to great stress for students as they go through the school system. They feel pressured.

15. The new reality in choosing careers (3) It is a long process. Choosing a career is seen as a complicated process, involving understanding who you are and being able to make decisions in a changing world.

16. What do you want to do when you grow up? I don’t know!!!

17. The solution Integrating career education as part of traditional education.

18. What is Career Education? Instruction which assists students in making decisions about careers and in having a happy and productive working life.

19. Career Education can be SCHOOL-WIDE: Activities or programs in which all students in all grades participate (example—Career Day fairs or Guest Speakers) OR CLASSROOM-BASED: Activities or lessons for a specific grade or class (example—8th grade English).

20. Career Education can be SEPARATE—given as a unit or an entire class alone. OR INTEGRATED—used as part of the content for a different class, e.g. English, Math, or Social sciences.

21. What is necessary in order to have quality career education in your school? (1) Support from everyone (administration, teachers, students, parents, etc). (2) Up-to-date information (3) Active student participation

22. (1) Support from Everyone Even though career education is a mandate, you must believe in it and agree that it can help students. Playing “it’s not my problem” is not productive. Explaining to students the purpose of career education activities can be helpful.

23. (2) Up-to-date information There are many resources such as books and websites which explain new approaches to career education.

24. (3) Active student participation This is a process for students, so activities should be communicative and expressive.

25. So...what is next? Once you have decided that Career education will help your students, you need to decide how best to implement it.

26. Classroom-based Integrated Career Education Most of the rest of the workshop will focus on this type of teaching, since it can be the easiest to implement. We will start with four areas of career education and discuss sample activities and projects.

27. Four Areas of Career Education • Knowledge of own personality and strengths • Awareness of many possible career options • Decision-making skills • Transition skills

28. 1) Knowledge of own personality and strengths 1a) Activities which help students identify and understand their own strengths. Example: “Who Are You” and “Meet Your Match” worksheets. Source: http://www.vaview.vt.edu/activities/6-8/index.cfm?searchLevel=68

29. 1) Knowledge of own personality and strengths 1b) Activities which help communication skills (needed to be successful in any job). Communication games like The messenger and the Scribe.

30. Problem solving games: Simulations in groups— The new bicycle you bought has just fallen apart. Decide what you would like the company to do about it and then write them a letter. Then groups can compare letters. Which one is the most effective, why? What is the best way to discuss a problem? Etc.

31. 2) Awareness of many possible career options 2a) What is a job? Students can have a discussion about what it means to have a job. How is having a job different that being a student? Do you have a job? What kind of job would you like in the future? How would you define a “good” job?

32. 2b) Students explore types of career options (in addition to the ones they already know). What can you do in…? Students make a list (they can research or do as homework) all the jobs they can think of which involve a field such as “biology” or “history” or “math.” Students should be ready to describe any job their classmates or teacher want to know more about.

33. 2c) What does a ____ do? Give students selections from possible job lists. They have to make a list of what a person in that job does, what the requirements of the job are, what are typical working hours, etc.

34. 2d) Job interview: Students interview someone who has a job which they are interested in learning more about (interview sheet may be used).

35. 3) Decision-making skills One very important aspect of being successful in any career is being able to make decisions when the answer isn’t completely clear. Choosing a job can involve many factors—see the “individual variables” sheet for more details. Activities should help students be good decision-makers.

36. 3a) Pros and Cons This simple activity involves presenting an action to a class (It does not have to be job related at first) and then having them list the pros (good reasons or results) and cons (bad reasons or results) about that action. Example: Spending $3000NT on a new bicycle.

37. 3b) Make a plan. Students use worksheets to make decisions about what their ideal job is and what they need to do to get it. Examples: “If life’s a game, play it well” and “Dream it, plan it, do it.”

38. 4) Transition skills This is the newest area in Career Education. Transition skills allow students to effectively cope with new situations, both desired and undesired. “Learning how to deal with change in a changing world”

39. 4a) Who moved my cheese?

40. 4b) Happy Ending. Students tell or write about a time when something very unexpected happened to them, but the result was better than they planned… The teacher can start by telling his/her own story.

41. 4c) New Job Market Some studies say that in the year 2060, over half of all the jobs that will be available haven’t been invented yet. Have students imagine a job that hasn’t been invented yet that they would like to have. What is it like? How is it different? Have students write a classified ad for that job.

42. 4d) New Job Market—history lesson. Find the classified ads from a newspaper 55 years ago. Compare to the classified ads from the same (or similar) newspaper today. Have students discuss differences in the jobs that were available then and those that are available today.

43. Your turn! Get into groups of three or four and plan some career education activities that you could do in your classes. Then we’ll share our ideas!

44. More resources • Virginia Career View--http://www.vaview.vt.edu/activities/6-8/index.cfm?searchLevel=68 • Career Matters—http://www.ilc.org/cfmx/CM/Careers/cm_faq.cfm • Careers.org--http://www.careers.org/

45. Any Questions? Thank you for your kind attention and participation!