Projects

Current situation and Objective

In order to ease the school-to-work transition of adolescents with disabilities or impairments, systematic preparation for the transition is necessary. Career choice preparation in the school thus has an important role to play. The question arises as to how suitable conventional teaching materials are for these particular adolescents.
In the initial phase of this project (2011), the materials employed in Swiss schools for career choice lessons will undergo evaluation. The findings of this evaluation shall provide answers to the following questions (selection): What are the possible target groups of career choice lesson materials? What (different) requirements do various groups of adolescents in the career choice phase have, most particularly during career choice lessons? What teaching materials are already employed in career choice lessons with regard to various target groups? How are these materials perceived and rated by the various people involved (most particularly by teaching staff and adolescents)? What gaps exist in current teaching materials? For which target groups should further teaching materials be developed? How are these materials to be constructed with regard to structure, content and appearance? The second phase of the project (2012) will see the design and development of teaching materials based on the findings of the evaluation.

Method

Concept: An explorative and qualitative procedure is planned for the first step, the aim of which is to gather the spectrum of opinions and experiences of those affected by the use of current materials in career choice lessons. The second step will involve a quantitative, broad-ranging survey of teaching staff.
On the one hand side, the results of the interviews will provide a temporary yet profound planning of the development of new teaching materials. On the other hand side, the results will serve the development of a structured assessment instrument to be used for the questioning of a broad sample of teaching staff employed in various secondary school settings.
The results of the qualitative and quantitative parts shall be discussed (validated) by a project support group and be integrated into the development of these teaching materials.

Sample: The plan is to carry out twenty guided interviews with secondary school teaching staff in the German and French speaking parts of Switzerland. The interview partner will take into account the various academic settings within which career choice lessons are found, that means inclusive learning mainstream classes, special classes and various special schools (for physical/sensory disabilities, cognitive impairments and behavioural problems). Additionally, eight specialists who have a certain external view with regard to the target groups and/or a good overview of the situation in practice (e.g. Disability Insurance career advisors, INSOS, insieme etc.) will undergo questioning. In order to take into account the perspective of those directly affected, namely the adolescents, classroom observations during the career choice lessons are planned in every school environment. The aim of this is to discover how the lesson is designed, what materials are used and how the adolescents react. Ten focus group interviews will also take place and, in addition to this, twelve parents will be invited to participate in a short telephone interview so that the career choice process can be examined from this equally important perspective.
The written questionnaire will be given to 250 teaching staff (approx. 75 inclusive, 75 segregated and 100 various special schools), again including the French-speaking part of Switzerland in this second project phase.

Duration of project

12/2010 – 3/2013

Cooperation

Verlag Schweizerisches Dienstleistungszentrum für Berufsbildung (SDBB)

Team and contact

Dr. phil. Claudia Schellenberg (Project Director),
Claudia Hofmann, lic. Phil.
Prof. Dr. Kurt Häfeli,