School to Work Transition

Not all teaching philosophies would lead us to believe that there is a relationship between education and work. The traditional philosophies of idealism and realism that in the past influenced the content and methods prevalent in the schools emphasized truths other than the world of work--concepts of ideological consistency and the laws of physical nature. However, in recent decades teachers and parents have required a closer relationship between what is taught in the schools and its usefulness in life after school. This attitude toward the purposes of education is more in line with the philosophy of existentialism, which assists educational professionals in the challenging task of aiding students to find their place in relation to society (McNeil & Wiles, 1990, p. 60).

The specialty of vocational education as we know it today arose in the 1960s and 1970s in connection with federal legislation and amendments which provided for vocational education in the secondary schools. Additionally, public and state agencies have become active in the funding and administration of vocational policies, partly to decrease discrimination of various kinds, and partly to provide in greater measure for persons with disabilities. This concern came about as a result of the nation's shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society. The unfortunate result of this change was a growing dissatisfaction with work. Job development had not kept up with the risin

sometimes arose because the work supervisor was more interested in work productivity than the learning of social skills. Another study designed to teach students social skills relevant to occupational situations directed attention to asking for help, accepting criticism, apologizing, and persuading others. It was found that the instructional techniques that worked best as a part of this training package were modeling, verbal rehearsal, visualization, cueing, feedback, and active role-playing (Clement-Heist, Siegel, Gaylord-Ross, 1992, p. 337). It was not known from this study conducted by Montague whether there would be efficient transfer of the learned skills in the job situation. Other researchers working on this same question have found that, in general, the beneficial social skills are more generalized if there is provided actual practice in real-life environments. Social skills training at the job site seems to be the most effective. Shapiro and Lentz identified that the effort to facilitate the transition from school to work has been noted as a major priority by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (1991, p. 47). They concluded that learning disabled students who attended vocational education

Category: Psychology - S