06/01/2008With All Your Power, What Will You Do? A Strengths-Based Career Unit for Elementary StudentsBy Kelsey Augst and Patrick AkosWhen I think of Superman or other popular superheroes, I often think about their special talents they use to do good in the world. While most of us do not recognize them as such, everyone has special powers that allow them to accomplish tasks daily. Strengths, talents, and interests combine to create unique powers for each person. Our world is full of individuals who are utilizing their powers in different ways; artists have creative powers, construction workers have building powers, and counselors have people powers. In efforts to engage and inspire elementary aged students while also building their sense of self-awareness and self-efficacy, I used this idea about discovering and sharing our powers in a strengths-based career classroom guidance unit. We know that crucial career related concepts and attitudes are first formed in childhood (Palladina-Schultheiss, Palma, & Manzi, 2005). Childhood interventions should facilitate exploration and self-concept development in order to enhance and strengthen early career development. Utilizing a Strengths-Based School Counseling (Galassi & Akos, 2007) approach provides students with opportunities to increase motivation and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy plays a central role in the career decision making process (O'Brien et al, 2000) and can be nurtured by helping students to identify personal assets and connect with role models. Further, students need to have opportunities that link academic areas with various occupations, helping them to make connections between school and the workforce. The classroom guidance lesson described next focused upon these particular needs for elementary school students. The Curriculum Four classroom lessons, lasting 35-45 minutes each, were delivered in several fourth grade classrooms. Objectives for the unit included indentifying personal powers, describing how what students are learning now (academics) will contribute to later careers, exploring and connecting to a variety of careers, and discussing how factors (e.g., gender or race) may influence how we use our powers in our career choice.
Lessons Learned While most students revel in identifying and sharing their power, some came to this awareness and embraced it at a slower pace. For example, one particular student needed to latch on to a career of interest first (actor) before he was able to describe his powers (talking to a crowd). By the last session, his enthusiasm and self-efficacy enabled many school-career connections (vocabulary) and a passion for sharing his power (by far the best costume!). We found the task of identifying, nurturing, using, and sharing a super power to be an appealing way to engage elementary school students in the career development process. Full plans and activity sheets are available by contacting the first author at kelseyaugst@yahoo.com. References Galassi, J. & Akos, P. (2007). Strengths-based School Counseling: Promoting Student Development and Achievement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. O'Brien, K.M., Bikos, L.H., Epstein, K.L., Flores, L.Y., Dukstein, B.D., & Ngondi, A.K. (2000). Enhancing the career decision making self-efficacy of upward bound students. Journal of Career Development, 26(4), 277-293. Palladino-Schultheiss, D.E., Palma, T.V., & Manzi, A.J. (2005). Career development in middle childhood: A qualitative inquiry. The Career Development Quarterly, 53(3), 246-262. Kelsey Augst, M.Ed., is a former elementary school teacher and currently a graduate student in School Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Patrick Akos, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of School Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |