Children's Occupational Knowledge

Abstract

Recent emphasis on career education has led to a proliferation of such programs in schools across the country. Most of these programs recognize that career development takes place over a: considerable period of years and that this process has both cognitive and affective elements. Recognition of the early roots of career development is of fairly recent origin.With the sizeable sums of tax monies now supporting career education and with current emphasis on accountability, it appears appropriate to attempt to measure career developmental levels. One such area of career development in which there is still limited research is that of children's knowledge of occupations. This article reviews research on the occupational knowledge of children and reports on a recent study of the occupational knowledge of 386 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. RELATED RESEARCHNelson [4] reported that the children in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 who showed more knowledge about occupations tended to be from higher socioeconomic levels, in the higher grade levels, and from urban backgrounds. No relationship between their sex and their occupational knowledge was found.DeFleur [1] studied the occupational knowledge of first and fourth graders. Her research showed the chronological age of the child to be an important factor in his maturity of thinking about occupations. Variations in development of occupational knowledge seemed also to be products of individual intelligence, sex role, and opportunities for acquiring knowledge. Personal contact as a method of learning seemed to produce the greatest depth of understanding of vocations.DeFleur and DeFleur [2] reported on the relative contribution

Children's occupational preferences: The influence of sex and perceptions of occupational characteristics

“…The data used to examine these expectations come from fourth grade students in a western Oregon school district. This age group was chosen because earlier studies indicated that students of this age are generally aware of a wide variety of occupations (DeFleur, 1966;Lauer, 1974;Simmons, 1962;Wehrly, 1973). The community has a population of approximately 40,000, is located in a standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA), is highly dependent on the lumber industry, and is predominantly white and working class.…”

Vocational Development of Black Inner‐City Students

“…The occupational knowledge of first and fourth graders was studied (Wehrly 1974). The research showed the chronological age of the child to be an important factor in his or her maturity in thinking about occupations.…”