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Career Assessment
Career assessment involves systematic appraisal for the purpose of assisting an individual in the career exploration, career development, or decision-making process. It may include, but is not limited to, assessing an individual's academic and work history, interests, skills, learning styles, personality, needs, and self-efficacy beliefs. Career assessment may be conducted in a formal manner using norm-referenced paper-and-[encil inventories; or it may be conducted less formally using counseling interview techniques, card-sort procedures, or behavioral observation. Optimally, career assessment is just one component of a larger and more comprehensive career guidance process that includes individual or group career guidance and the exploration of career and/or educational information.
The Goals of Career Assessment
In educational settings, career assessment is designed to help students and their parents understand career preferences and skills and to assist them in educational and career planning and in goal setting. Developmentally appropriate career assessment activities in the schools vary depending upon the needs of the individual or the school system; hence, the uses of these assessments vary. For example, some assessment instruments are group administered and interpreted in a classroom setting. One purpose of these assessments is to promote career exploration through self-awareness. In contrast, individualized career assessment might be used to aid in an educational transition or for the purposes of developing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for a student with a disability.
Career assessment in the schools is based on the career development tasks that are considered appropriate for a particular age group or grade level. In elementary school, for example, students begin to articulate their preferences and skills, develop a positive attitude toward work, and learn about the relationships between school and work. Middle school students may learn how to use systems for classifying occupations and develop an understanding of their interests and skills. At the high school level, parttime employment opportunities may provide students with an understanding of the role that work values play in career satisfaction. High school students are also more likely to develop a more realistic understanding of their potential in various fields. As they approach graduation, these students face important career decisions and come to assume more responsibility for their career development.
Although career assessment and counseling have historically targeted students in high school and college, a number of authors address the importance of helping elementary and middle school students develop a foundation for later career development tasks (Herring, 1998).
Methods of Career Assessment
Herring (1998) notes that career guidance programs in schools often include processes such as classroom instruction, counseling, paper-and-pencil career assessment, career information, placement, consultation, and referral. Counselors promoting the career development of school-aged children should be trained to administer and interpret career assessment instruments and should have training in career development theory and assessment. Further, they should be aware of the potential cultural, gender, and socioeconomic influences that can impact a student's assessment performance.
As an alternative to standardized paper-and-pencil instruments, career assessment is increasingly offered on the computer and the Internet in the form of comprehensive computer-assisted career guidance programs that provide students with formal career assessment, educational and occupational information, job search strategies, and educational planning opportunities. Two popular software or Internet programs are ACT's DISCOVER and Educational Testing Service's (ETS) SIGI PLUS. Finally, many counselors use less formal practices such as behavioral observations, academic and work histories, classroom performance, or insession exercises to collect information similar in nature to that elicited by standardized assessment.
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- Assessment
- Academic Achievement
- Adaptive Behavior Assessment
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Authentic Assessment
- Behavioral Assessment
- Bias (Testing)
- Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook
- Career Assessment
- Classroom Observation
- Criterion-Referenced Assessment
- Curriculum-Based Assessment
- Fluid Intelligence
- Functional Behavioral Assessment
- Infant Assessment
- Intelligence
- Interviewing
- Mental Age
- Motor Assessment
- Neuropsychological Assessment
- Outcomes-Based Assessment
- Performance-Based Assessment
- Personality Assessment
- Portfolio Assessment
- Preschool Assessment
- Projective Testing
- Psychometric G
- Reports (Psychological)
- Responsiveness to Intervention Model
- Social–Emotional Assessment
- Sociometric Assessment
- Written Language Assessment
- Behavior
- Consultation
- Demographic Variables
- Development
- Diagnosis
- Disorders
- DSM-IV
- Adjustment Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Bipolar Disorder (Childhood Onset)
- Communication Disorders
- Conduct Disorder
- Depression
- Dyslexia
- Echolalia
- Fears
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Learning Disabilities
- Mental Retardation
- Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Pedophilia
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
- Psychopathology in Children
- Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy and Early Childhood
- Selective Mutism
- Separation Anxiety Disorder
- Somatoform Disorders
- Stuttering
- Ethical/Legal Issues in School Psychology
- Family and Parenting
- Interventions
- Issues Students Face
- Learning and Motivation
- Legislation
- Medical Conditions
- Multicultural Issues
- Peers
- Prevention
- Reading
- Research
- School Actions
- School Personnel
- School Psychologist Roles
- Careers in School Psychology
- Consultation: Behavioral
- Consultation: Conjoint Behavioral
- Consultation: Ecobehavioral
- Consultation: Mental Health
- Counseling
- Diagnosis and Labeling
- Home–School Collaboration
- Multidisciplinary Teams
- Parent Education and Parent Training
- Program Evaluation
- Reports (Psychological)
- Research
- Responsiveness to Intervention Model
- School Reform
- School Psychology Organizations
- American Board of Professional Psychology
- American Psychological Association
- Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs
- Division of School Psychology (Division 16)
- International School Psychology Association
- Licensing and Certification in School Psychology
- National Association of School Psychologists
- School-Related Terms
- School Types
- Schools as Organizations
- Special Education
- Statistical and Measurement Terms
- Student Problematic Behavior
- Technology
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