Comparing the effectiveness of two different career education courses on career decidedness for college freshmen: An exploratory study

An exploratory study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of two diff erent career education courses on career decision making for college freshm en in Taiwan. Two different career education courses were designed for coll ege students; one was a cognitive restructuring intervention and the other was a career decision skills training intervention. The cognitive restructu ring career education course was compared to two other conditions. Approxim ately 164 college freshmen were administered the Career Decision Scale, a d emographic sheet, and a follow-up questionnaire. The design selected for th e study was a pre- and post-test design, using two experimental groups (two approaches to career education courses) and one control group. A total of 152 subjects completed both pre- and post-analyses. A 3 x 2 multivariate an alysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was performed. The factors were treatment an d gender. In the comparisons of the students who took the two different app roaches to career education courses and the students who did not, statistic al analyses of the data indicated that regardless of gender, a significant treatment main effect on the indecision scale of the Career Decision Scale was found. However, there were no significant treatment group differences b etween the two experimental groups. Implications and suggestions for design ing a college career education course were also discussed.