Using Sand Tray to Facilitate College Students' Career Decision‐Making: A Qualitative Inquiry

Career decision‐making can be a challenging and stressful process for college students, and career counselors can be instrumental in helping college students to ease this process. Sand tray, an expressive, play therapy technique, offers career counselors a potentially useful method in this regard. The authors examine the use of sand tray to promote the career decision‐making process. Four undergraduate college students engaged in a sand tray intervention designed to promote career decision‐making. In the final session, students participated in an interview and had the opportunity to review and reflect on their sand tray photographs. Results of a phenomenological‐based analysis revealed 5 themes: (a) initial skepticism, (b) helpfulness, (c) awareness, (d) self‐expression, and (e) continued work. Career counselors may use this unique, creative approach to help clients who are stuck in the career decision‐making process. Future research may include examining the use of sand tray with other interventions, as well as examining intervention effectiveness on career outcome variables.     

Using Sand Trays and Miniature Figures to Facilitate Career Decision Making

Sand tray therapy has earned status as a respected, often powerful, therapeutic modality. Counselors have used sand trays and figures for a variety of purposes with children, adolescents, adults, families, and groups. This modality can also be used to facilitate career decision making and related issues as clients create visual representations of their career history, goals, dilemmas, barriers, opportunities, resources, and options. The authors present an overview of the therapeutic use of sand trays and figures, a brief historical review, and a theoretical context. Recommendations for implementation with clients requesting career counseling are provided and illustrated.     

Ethnic Group and Social Class Differences in College Students' Career Development

The purpose of this investigation was to examine ethnic group and social class differences in 401 college students' career development. Assessments of career development included career decision-making attitudes, vocational congruence, and career decision-making skills. Statistical analyses did not reveal any social class differences in career development. Ethnic group differences, however, were observed, including significant differences in career decision-making attitudes and vocational congruence. Findings suggest that current theories of career development are lacking in their application to today's ethnically diverse college population. Future directions for cross-cultural career development research and implications for career counselors are discussed.     

Using a Book Group to Facilitate Student Learning About Social Work

The focus of this short paper is the increasingly popular format of the book group. This format has been used on an undergraduate social work programme in the UK with the aim of engaging students, as some enjoy reading fiction for pleasure but find it harder to read social science. The BA Social Work Book Group has met regularly to discuss non-social science books, such as novels and autobiographies. A specific example is presented of a best-selling novel with significant social work content (J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy) and the book group's discussion of this. The strengths and limitations of book groups in social work education are drawn out.     

School Counselors Supporting African Immigrant Students' Career Development: A Case Study

School counselors play a critical role in preparing adolescent immigrant students to be college and career ready by attending to the complex variables that promote and inhibit career development. This article provides an illustrative case study of a Somali immigrant student's educational journey to highlight the academic and familial challenges that she encountered while attending U.S. schools. Through this case study, the authors discuss the issues immigrant high school students experience and present culturally responsive practices that school counselors can use to address career development. These culturally responsive practices include developing a strong knowledge of students’ backgrounds and cultures, designing small group interventions that are timely and sensitive to immigrant students’ needs, and strengthening school–family partnerships.     

大学生职业生涯发展辅导研究

高等教育大众化所带来的毕业生就业压力,使高校毕业生就业指导工作逐渐引起了人们的高度重视.现阶段我国高校就业指导只是侧重"成品包装"式的就业指导,缺乏"产品设计"式的职业生涯发展辅导.随着高等教育的发展,职业生涯发展辅导的优越性日益显现,用"职业生涯发展辅导"代替"就业指导"是大势所趋.新的模式可以实现社会需求最大满足、高校资源的充分利用、人的全面发展.     

Using Technology to Deliver Career Development Services: Supporting Today's Students in Higher Education

Career services professionals are increasingly involved in decisions regarding the use of technology. This article presents a number of considerations to be explored, including the characteristics and needs of today's students, available technologies, funding requirements, and confidentiality issues. The author recommends an approach that includes strategic planning, needs analyses, training, and ongoing support. Current asynchronous and synchronous technologies are described, and examples of the use of each in the context of career services are provided. The specific technologies presented are e‐mail, discussion boards, video, podcasts, websites, Internet‐based guidance and information systems, telephone, instant messages, and virtual rooms.     

Evaluating DISCOVER's Effectiveness in Enhancing College Students' Social Cognitive Career Development

College students (20 women, 14 men) seeking career counseling services at a university career center participated in this exploratory investigation. A 2 (DISCOVER treatment) × 2 (counseling treatment) research design was used to evaluate the individual and combined effects of DISCOVER (ACT, 1998) and counseling on participants' career decision‐making self‐efficacy and career decision‐making attributional style. Findings revealed a significant effect of the use of DISCOVER on participants' career decision‐making self‐efficacy and their sense of control over the career decision‐making process. Results are discussed regarding the implications for career counseling and ideas for further research in this domain.     

社会资本视角下的大学生职业发展教育

社会资本在大学生就业过程中起着举足轻重的作用,但大学生社会资本的开发与利用不足。职业发展教育有助于提升大学生的就业力和职业发展能力,而目前关于职业发展教育的理论研究与实践操作中并没有重视大学社会资本的开发与利用。因此,有必要在大学生职业发展教育中,引入社会资本理论,开展社会资本视角下的职业发展教育．创新大学生职业发展教育。     

Predicting Undergraduate Student Retention in STEM Majors Based on Career Development Factors

A research gap exists with regard to examining the influence of career interventions and career readiness assessments on student retention in college majors related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To address this gap, the authors examined 3 variables as potential predictors of retention in STEM‐related majors: (a) a STEM‐focused career planning intervention, (b) students' initial major declarations, and (c) changes in scores on a measure of career readiness. Results revealed that all 3 independent variables were significant predictors of STEM retention but did not accurately predict students who would not be retained. These results have implications for undergraduate STEM initiatives, college counselors and career advisors, and researchers investigating the predictors of STEM retention. Future research should include additional predictor variables.     

The Application of Group Interviews to the Planning and Evaluation of Career Development Programs

Structured, focused group interviews (focus groups) provide the opportunity to assess the knowledge and experiences of a variety of people with a common interest in a relatively short period of time. Through carefully structured questions and materials as well as planned interactions, a focused situation is created to yield the desired information. This article presents the methodology and results of the focus group interviews conducted as part of an evaluation of the Career Information System of Iowa. The advantages and disadvantages of focus groups and additional applications to career development program planning and evaluation are discussed.     

Career Adaptability and Turnover Intention: A Dual-Mediation Model

Career adaptability denotes psychosocial resources that help employees self-manage career change through both adapting themselves to the environment and adapting the environment to themselves. Previous studies have probed the former strategy and proposed a negative relationship between career adaptability and turnover intention. However, the presence of the latter strategy suggests a more complex relationship than previously thought. From a person-job fit perspective, the authors used structural equation modeling to examine the mechanism underlying the relationship between career adaptability and job satisfaction (an important predictor of turnover intention) among 218 employees working in China. The results showed that career adaptability had mixed effects on job satisfaction through the mediating role of task adaptivity and perceived overqualification. Overall, these findings carry theoretical and practical implications for career adaptability research and career counseling practices related to employee development.     

The Career Development Quarterly: A Centennial Retrospective

The Career Development Quarterly has been the premier journal in the field of vocational guidance and career intervention since its inception 100 years ago. To celebrate its centennial, 3 former editors trace its evolution from a modest and occasional newsletter to its current status as a major professional journal. They recount its history of publishing foundational articles in vocational guidance practice and career development theory, commitment to improving counseling practice, leadership in public policy and social justice issues, and expansion to international audiences.