RESOURCES AND TOOLS THAT
SCHOOL COUNSELORS USE FOR
CAREER COUNSELING
Kristen Davidson
Jennifer Edwards
Alyssa Heggen
Danhua Kong
Lauren LaFayette
Brian Maloney
Jennifer Richards
SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
A self-administered, self-scored, and selfinterpreted career counseling tool (Krieshok
1987)
 Developed as a research instrument to validate
Holland’s theory; yields Holland types (Sharf,
2006)
 Use subsets such as aspirations and
competencies to measure one’s similarity to
the six Holland types (Miller, 1997)

STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
The Self-Directed Search can be a helpful tool
for guidance counselors
 Most appropriate for use with high schoolers,
versions adapted for middle schoolers
 25% of students taking the Self-Directed
Search make errors in scoring the instrument,
10% of those are serious=trained proctor
should be available to assist students
 (Miller, 1997)

STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Incoming freshmen, freshmen orientation
 Offer it during the first few weeks of school
to willing students during study hall, break,
or lunch
 Psychology, Home economics, or technology
class
 In conjunction with FAFSA meetings, parent
meetings
 Join forces with athletic teams and
organizations

VALIDITY OF THE SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
The degree to which a person’s expressed
interests relate to their inventory results
 High rates of validity are between 48-64%
(depending on sex and age)
 1977, a group of high school freshmen took the
inventory

40%/men, 66% women
 Eventual occupation or field of entry was the
predicted variable
 Validity is comparable to other inventories in it’s
class
 (Krieshok, 1987)

RELIABILITY OF THE SELF-DIRECTED SEARCH
O’Connell at the University of Maryland
facilitated a study to determine test-retest
reliability
 65 subjects were administered the SDS during
freshman orientation and 7-10 months later
 Results showed little change in code
 Unreliability= individuals scoring their own
booklets is a source of unrealiability

CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
27 million people world wide
 Other versions formed: Canadian, Spanish,
Chinese
 Edition for those with limited reading skills
 Sharf, 2006

KUDER AND COPS
CALIFORNIA OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE
SYSTEM
COPS, CAPS, COPES
 Career Clusters

 Science
 Outdoor
 Clerical
 Arts

Technology
Business
Communication
Service
Results from inventories matched with career
clusters
KUDER CAREER SEARCH WITH PERSON
MATCH
Dr. Frederic Kuder
 6 career clusters

 Outdoor/Mechanical
 Arts/Communication
Services
 Sales/Management
Operations

Science/Technical
Social/Personal
Business
Student interests = interest profiles of people
in different occupations
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Purpose and Use
Designed to assist in career decision-making process
 1st step - provides information for future career
exploration
 Match inventory results with career clusters
 Explore occupations within career clusters
 Should not be sole source of information


Best Practices
Once in middle school
 Twice in high school

FREQUENCY AND RANGE

COPS

Broad range


COPS, COPS P, COPS II, COPS R, COPS PIC
Frequency

19,000 per year norm base


7th -12th English
KCS with Person Match

Range



Middle school to adult
More effective with age
Frequency

KCS with Person Match


Total ~2 million
Secondary 1.3 million
VALIDITY & RELIABILITY

COPS

Knapp, Knapp, & Knapp-Lee, 1985


60 to 74% accurate for prediction of career choice or college major
Knapp, Knapp, & Buttafuoco , 1978
45% same highest for 2 successive years
 ~80% same two highest
 93% same for top three


KCS with Person Match

Zytowski & Laing, 1978


51% employed in predicted occuptation
Compared

89% match top three in COPS and KCS(EDITS)
NARRATIVE CAREER COUNSELING WITH
STUDENTS
NARRATIVE CAREER COUNSELING




Based on the principle that life events and experiences
can be organized into stories that can lead to effective
change.
Narrative career counseling links the past, present, and
future through a narrative form (Thomas & Gibbons,
2009).
The student is the expert in the session and is the author
and the main character of her career story (Eppler, Olsen,
& Hidano, 2009).
Narrative career counseling aligns with the American
School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) standards in the
promotion of career competencies (American School
Counselor Association, 2003).
RESEARCH
Narrative career counseling has been found to
work well with students, as it allows them to be the
experts in their own lives (Thomas & Gibbons,
2009)
 Research has also shown that narrative career
counseling works well with students dealing with
parental divorce.


Adolescents from divorced families have poorer
academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes
that their peers from intact families (Thomas &
Gibbons, 2009)
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
•
•
•
•
Brott's "storied approach“ (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009):
 Co-Construction Process, Construction Process, Deconstruction
Process
Biblionarrative technique (Eppler et al., 2009):
 a combination of oral and written story that can be revised
together throughout academic year
Displaced communication (Eppler at al., 2009):
 focus on activities and materials with which students are
comfortable and engage the student in indirect communication to
discover their story
The use of stories (Eppler et al., 2009):
 promotes reading skills while creating discussion on career
exploration
AGE GROUP/GRADES

Children:


Using stories encourages rapport building because the children’s own
choices of words are used and the counselor collaborates with the child
(Eppler et al., 2009)
Adolescents:
•
•
•
First, adolescents have a strong desire for autonomy. Narrative
career counseling requires the adolescent to be the primary
author and actor.
Second, adolescents believe that their thoughts, beliefs, and
attitudes are more accurate than others' interpretations.
Finally, adolescents are resistant to interventions that may be
interpreted as personal criticism (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009).
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Narrative career counseling is fairly new to the
career counseling field, so there is a limited
amount of empirical support for this approach.
 This approach may be difficult for beginning
counselors because of the lack of structured
techniques and the lack of specific inventories.
(McIlveen & Patton, 2007)

CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS

Benefits of Narrative career counseling:
•
•
•
Clients tell their life and career stories from the context of their
experiences, allowing the client context and worldview to be
integrated (Toporek & Flamer, 2009).
Effective with marginalized groups where storytelling and
narration are historically valued (Toporek & Flamer, 2009).
School counselors using narrative counseling must be sensitive
to the differences in counseling adolescents versus adults.

Some adolescent students may not have moved into Piaget's
formal-operational stage, which typically begins around sixth
grade at age 11 or 12 (Thomas & Gibbons, 2009).
DISCOVER
DISCOVER

Research-based assessments:



Comprehensive, developmental guidance process:


occupations, college majors, schools and training institutions, financial
aid/scholarships, and military options
Develop good job-seeking skills:


identify strengths and needs, make good career decisions, and build a
plan based on their personal profiles
Complete, current databases:


career-relevant interests, abilities, and job values
World-of-Work Map organizes occupations into six clusters, parallel to
Holland's Hexagon
effective resumes, cover letters, job applications, and interviewing skills
Serves persons from middle school through adulthood
(http://www.act.org/discover/)
RESEARCH

The DISCOVER World-of-Work Map:





Interest inventory:




15 abilities (6-10) , important work-relevant abilities-----sales, leadership, organization, and
manual dexterity
Job values inventory:


Not occupational titles or specific job duties
Assess basic interests while minimizing the effects of sex-role connotations
Results are visually linked to career options via the World-of-Work Map
Ability inventory:


An extension of John Holland's hexagon (26 career areas)
How interests, abilities, and job values relate to each other and to career options
Provides a simple yet comprehensive overview of the work world
Encourage users to explore families of related occupations before moving on to specific
occupations
Uses the World-of-Work Map to link work values (e.g., authority, public contact, physical
activity) to career options and to interests and abilities.
Research Support for DISCOVER Assessment Components summarizes a small part
of the research supporting DISCOVER assessments
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Psycho-education
 Group career counseling
 Individual career counseling

AGE GROUPS/GRADES

People in Grade 6 or higher:





Grade6 click on Occupational tab, then “By the World-of-Work Map”
Grade 6-7: take the Interest Inventory
Grade 8: take the Interest and Abilities Inventories
Grade 9 or above: take Interest, Abilities, and Values Inventories
(Super’s career developmental theory)
Used for







High school
Four-year college
Two year college
Professional/graduate school
Career/technical training
Military service
Immediate employment
( Osborne, W., 1997)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

Based on more than 20 empirical investigations conducted by
counselors and researchers over the past two decades,
DISCOVER is effective:




Help individuals make career decisions
Clients who have specific career development needs
Other kinds of career counseling
Increase an individual’s:
 Career decidedness and occupational certainty
 Career maturity
 Level of career development: Super’s career developmental theory
 Career decision-making self-efficacy
 Vocational identity
 Career exploration behavior
(http://www.act.org/discover/)
CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

Ability self-estimates
 self-confident

vs. modest
Interests
 value
of education (study vs. work, sports)
 certain school subjects (math, science)

Job values
 Individualism
VS Collectivism
 Social attitudes toward jobs
MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
MBTI – MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
-Based off the work of Carl Jung
-Created by Katherine and Isabel Briggs
-Reports a person’s preferred ways of attending to the world
-4 Letters representing your preferences (16 combinations):
Where you focus your attention
— Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
The way you take in information
— Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)
The way you make decisions
— Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
How you deal with the outer world
— Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
RESEARCH
-Used in middle schools to help teachers know
what learning styles work best for their
students
-Adaptations can then be made in teaching styles
-Type can help students understand, while
different from peers, still normal
RESEARCH CONT.
Project implemented in
Language Arts Department
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLICATION
-Often used in psychology or interpersonal
related classes or for team building
-Helps to improve communication and decision
making (Watkins & Campbell, 2000)
AGE GROUPS/GRADES
-Used most often for older students and adults –
often at the college level
-Isabel Myers designed to use this for a wide age
range and for multiple presenting issues
(Watkins & Campbell, 2000)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
-Younger students yield scores with lower
reliability than did adults 20 years and older
(Capraro & Capraro)
-Higher achieving students yield higher reliability
than do lower achieving students (Capraro & Capraro)
-Validity may be questionable because no
evidence to show positive relation between
MBTI and success within an occupation
(Pittenger, 1993)
DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE:
LEARNMOREINDIANA.ORG
LEARN MORE INDIANA

Learn More Indiana helps students and
parents:
 Check
out colleges and career training programs
 Explore different careers including the fastest
growing Indiana occupations
 Keep academics on track through grad-specific
checklists and tips for supporting life-long learning
 Find ways to save and pay for college
INTEREST INVENTORIES

Career Clickers eXpanded- A more detailed bank of questions to help
connect individuals to possible careers that may interest them.

Career Clickers eXpress- Use these tools to find out what jobs might be
best for you and how to get into the career you’ve always wanted.

Career One Stop- It is designed to provide information on high growth,
in-demand occupations along with the skills and education needed to
attain those jobs.

Career Party- Career Party is a very short career interest inventory for
students. It quickly helps students get a code that can then be entered
into the “Career Profiles” section of the learn more website.

Drive of Your Life- Drive of Your Life is a Web-based video game
designed to help middle-school students learn more about themselves
and their options for the future.
“DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE”
Career exploration game based on Holland’s
Codes
 Specifically for middle-school and high school
students
 Allows students to answer questions about
themselves to learn what themselves and
careers that interest them on a “virtual drive”
 Created specifically for Indiana students by IYI,
funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc
http://www.driveofyourlife.org/

RESEARCH

Last school year:
1,530 schools used “Drive of Your Life”
 103,000 students in the state of Indiana.
 223 Youth Serving Organizations (not for profits,
after school programs, churches)
 923 youth

Used state wide so it should cross all SES, race,
and genders, but these statistics are not
tracked by IYI
 DOE tracks the free and reduced lunch profile
of each school though

STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
Lesson 1:Introduction of Drive of Your Life (15
minutes)
 Lesson 2:Log on to Drive of Your Life (20 minutes)
 Lesson 3:Customize your ride (45 minutes)
 Lesson 4:Personal Style Assessment (20 minutes)
 Lesson 5: Plan your trip (40 minutes)
 Lesson 6: Jump in and drive (40 minutes)
 Lesson 7: Conclusion and print out (20 minutes)

WHEN TO USE “DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE”
Learn more Indiana recommends 6th grade
 Created for Middle School students, but
students from 5th grade through high school
teachers have found it helpful

(Learn More Indiana, 2007)

Primarily used by middle schools with the bulk
of the students in 6th grade
(K. Coffman, personal communication, April 4, 2011)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

Learn More Indiana collects data through student surveys to
inform schools, communities and policy-makers about student
postsecondary aspirations, perceived barriers and access
needs.

These surveys also provide a way to link students directly with
Indiana’s colleges and universities and provide valuable
information to improve school counseling and communication
efforts. (Learn More Indiana, 2007)

“Drive of your Life” was created in 2005. At this point, students
who have used this program are not yet going on to college.

Indiana Youth Institute is in the process of doing an evaluation to
see its effectiveness on college going rates and college success.
(K. Coffman, personal communication, April 4, 2011)
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
JA Worldwide is the world’s largest organization
dedicated to educating students about workforce
readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy
through experiential, hands-on programs. (Junior
Achievement, 2011)
 Multiple lessons depending on the age group

JA is a program used in the school to help students gain
a better knowledge of real world jobs.
 Focus is entrepreneurship, global business, and
finances
(Junior Achievement, 2011)

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT

Junior Achievement Programs help prepare young
people for the real world by showing them how to:
Generate wealth and effectively manage it
 Create jobs which help the community
 Apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace (Junior
Achievement, 2011)


Student put these lessons into action and learn
the value of contributing to their communities.
(Junior Achievement, 2011)
RESEARCH
JA Worldwide reaches 9.7 million students per
year (Junior Achievement, 2011)
 379,968 classrooms and afterschool locations.
(Junior Achievement, 2011)
 JA programs are taught by volunteers in inner
cities, suburbs, and rural areas throughout the
United States of America (Junior Achievement,
2011)
 122 countries around the world (Junior
Achievement, 2011).

IMPLEMENTATION IN SCHOOLS
In-class and after-school programs
 Teachers or school counselors
 Volunteers
 Psycho-educational presentations and group
work
 Grants

AGE GROUPS

Elementary
 BizTown

(Junior Achievement, 2011)
Middle School
 Financial

Literacy
High School
 Careers
with a Purpose (Junior Achievement, 2011)
 Job Shadowing
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Hired Worldwide Institute for Research and
Evaluation (WIRE) to complete longitudinal studies
of program (Junior Achievement, 2004).
 assessment and evaluation showed

students had a better understanding of free enterprise
 Students were more likely to be employed
 Students were more likely to enroll in postsecondary
education than were other same-age students

 (Junior
Achievement, 2004)
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY



JA students were more likely than students in general to
matriculate to college immediately after high school. (Junior
Achievement, 2004)
Perhaps most importantly, JA students were significantly
more confident about their ability to complete college than
were students in general (Junior Achievement, 2004).
JA students, as compared to students in general, were
significantly more likely to describe themselves as taking
responsibility for their behaviors and having a positive selfconcept. These two characteristics, according to the
psychological literature, correlate positively with success in
adult life (Junior Achievement, 2004).
ASCA
ASCA STANDARDS











C:A1.3 Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests and
motivations
C:A1.8 Pursue and develop competency in areas of interest
C:A1.9 Develop hobbies and vocational interests
C:A2.6 Learn how to write a résumé
C:A2.7 Develop a positive attitude toward work and learning
C:B1.2 Identify personal skills, interests and abilities and relate them to current
career choice
C:B2.2 Assess and modify their educational plan to support career
C:B2.4 Select course work that is related to career interests
C:C1.3 Identify personal preferences and interests influencing career choice
and success
C:C1.7 Understand that work is an important and satisfying means of personal
expression
C:C2.1 Demonstrate how interests, abilities and achievement relate to achieving
personal, social, educational and career goals
REFERENCES
REFERENCES
American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling
Programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Capraro, R. M., & Capraro, M.M. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator score reliability across studies: A meta-analytic
reliability generalization study. Texas A&M University.
EDITS Online. (2010). A brief summary of the reliability and validity of the COPSystem assessments. Retrieved
April 11, 2011 from http://www.edits.net/resourcecenter/testing-supplementals/63-newsletter-1.html
Eppler, C., Olsen, J. A., & Hidano, L. (2009). Using stories in elementary school counseling: Brief, narrative
techniques. Professional School Counseling, 12, 387-391.
Indiana Youth Institute. (2006). Drive of your life. Retrieved from www.driveofyourlife.org
REFERENCES
Junior Achievement (2004). The impact on students of participation in JA Worldwide: Selected cumulative and longitudinal
findings. Retrieved from http://www.ja.org/files/long_summary.pdf
Junior Achievement (2011). JA Job Shadow. Retrieved from http://www.ja.org/programs/programs_job_shadow_obj.shtml
Junior Achievement (2011). News Room: Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.ja.org/about/about_news_fact.shtml
Kise, J. (2011). Using type at an urban middle school: Building relationships and improving student performance.
Retrieved from http://www.mbtitoday.org/
Knapp, R. R., Knapp, L., & Buttafuoco, P. M. (1978). Interest changes and the classification of occupations. Measurement
and Evaluation in Guidance, 11, 14–19.
REFERENCES
Knapp, R. R., Knapp, L., & Knapp-Lee, L. (1985). Occupational interest measurement and subsequent career decisions: A
predictive follow-up study of the COPSystem Interest Inventory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 32,348-354.
DOI:10.1037/0022-0167.32.3.348
Krieshok, T.S. (1987). Review of the self-directed search. Journal of Counseling and Development, 9.
Learn More Indiana. (2007). Learn more Indiana: Your college and career connection. Retrieved from
http://learnmoreindiana.org
McIlveen, P. & Patton, W. (2007). Narrative career counseling: Theory and exemplars of practice. Australian Psychologist,
42, 226-235. doi: 10.1080/00050060701405592
Miller, M.J. (1997). Error rates on two forms of the self-directed search and satisfaction with the results. Journal of
Employment Counseling, 12.
REFERENCES
O’Connell, T.J. & Sedlacek, W.E. (1971). The reliability of holland’s self-directed search for educational and vocational
planning. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/d etailmin
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Occupational Interest Survey. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 25, 209.
Osborne, W. L., (1997), Career development, assessment, and counseling : applications of the Donald E. Super C-DAC
approach, Alexandria, Va. : American Counseling Association.
Pittenger, D. J. (1993). Measuring the MBTI and coming up short. Journal of Career Planning and Placement.
Sharf, S.S. (2006). Applying Career Development Theory to Counseling. California: Thomson Wadsworth.
REFERENCES
Thomas, D. A., Gibbons, M. M. (2009). Narrative theory: A career counseling approach
for adolescents of divorce. Professional School Counseling, 12, 223-229.
Toporek, R. L. & Flamer, C. (2009). The résumé's secret identity: A tool for narrative
exploration in multicultural career counseling. Journal of Employment Counseling,
46, 4-17.
Watkins Jr., E. C., & Campbell, V. L. (2000). Testing and Assessment in Counseling
Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, London.
Zytowski, D. G. & Laing, J. (1978). Validity of other-gender-normed scales on the Kuder.