Tuesday, March 11, 2014

JCTE Issue is Now Available Online

In the recently released issue of the Journal of Career and Technical Education (JCTE), Volume 28, Number 1 / Spring 2013, three articles are featured. Two articles addressed topics related to the promotion of college and career readiness, wile the other focused on professional development needs in secondary education.

Besnoy, Clayton-Code, and Whitman conducted a qualitative study to evaluate the effectiveness of a daylong career development conference offered to male high school juniors and seniors residing in a Midwestern metropolitan area. The conference referred to as Man Up! Men’s Leadership Summit, served as the focus in the study and included the participation of 166 high school students interested in charting a career path. The authors concluded that this type of conferences can have a positive impact on assisting male students in identifying transitional paths to postsecondary education.

In turn, George-Jackson and Lichtenberger examined how background and school factors impact interest to major in one of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for high school students. Based on the analysis of a binary logistic regression model, the authors found that high school course taking in science and scores on science and math standardized tests were significantly and positively related to an increased interest in STEM majors. Other significant individual factors shaping college aspirations were gender, ethnicity, and SES. On the other hand school factors such as teacher academic qualifications had a negative but significant relationship with STEM interest, while teacher experience had a small but significant positive relationship.

Finally, Cannon, Kitchel, and Tenuto shared the findings of a study seeking to describe Idaho superintendents’ perceptions of Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher’s professional development needs. Based on a descriptive method, the authors reported that teaching critical/creative thinking skills and proper safety attitudes were viewed as most important. Further, integrating reading and writing standards into CTE curricula were rated as the highest priority for perceived in-service professional development.

Collectively, the articles reflect the current interest in understanding how to promote college and career readiness in general and in STEM fields in particular. In addition to background and school factors, career and technical education is becoming an important vehicle for promoting both college and career readiness. In addition, the role of professional development is also recognized as an important component for improving the quality of teaching, learning, and career development in schools.

Reading/Downloading Full Articles

To access the full version of the articles, you may access Volume 28, Issue 1 (Spring 2013) issue of the Journal of Career and Technical Education at http://ott.metapress.com/content/122477?sortorder=asc. Access is free to OTT members. Previous issues of the journal can be accessed at the following location: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JCTE/

Submitting Manuscripts for Publication

To submit manuscripts and preparation guidelines, please visit the JCTE's page at http://cwe-usf-ott.blogspot.com/p/jcte.html

Monday, January 6, 2014

OTT-Alpha Gamma Chapter officers installed and new members initiated

Tampa, FL - January 6, 2014. The Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Omicron Tau Theta professional organization, established at the University of South Florida in 2013, started the new year with a bang holding another initiation ceremony to install chapter officers and welcome new members on board. Shetay Ashford, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, reported the installation of chapter officers and that 10 new members were inducted into OTT’s Alpha Gamma Chapter at USF on January 4th at the Tampa campus. 

Sponsored by our OTT chapter, prior to the initiation ceremony, Dr. Daniel Cox presented the results of his dissertation research to the group. In his dissertation study Daniel analyzed predictors of student enrollment patterns in high school career academies. He defended his dissertation on November 14, 2013.

After lunch, which was provided by Chef Bonnie James, Shetay Ashford’s mom, Dr. Johanna Lasonen, Chapter Advisor, introduced the ceremony providing some historical background about OTT and the Alpha Gamma Chapter at USF. Dr. Lasonen explained that to establish the chapter, officers had been chosen on a volunteer basis to get activities started. To formalize officers' roles, an installation ceremony was held to recognize Shetay Ashford as Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Dr. Daniel Cox as Historian, Dr. Bill Blank as Parlamentarian, Meredith Bogush as Secretary, Lysey Reys Nickel as Public Relations Officer, Jessica Shearer as Board Member, Dr. Edward Fletcher as President Elect, and Dr. Victor Hernandez as President.

The installation of officers was followed by the initiation of new members including Moni Dickerson, Cichele Fields, Zachary Riffell, Ansberto Vallejo, Todd Van Auken, Lisa Martino, Fred Edora. The new members are currently in the process of completing doctoral studiers in Career and Workforce Education. Congratulations on your induction to OTT’s Alpha Gamma Chapter!

The ceremony concluded with a conversation with Pekka Kämäräinen about the German workforce education system. Pekka Kämäräinen serves as Researcher at the Institute of Technology and Education, University of Bremen in Germany, and contributes to the work of the Department of International Research on Vocational Education and Training, Innovation, and Industrial Culture.

Below are some pictures of the OTT chapter event.