Helping first year engineering students Get Set for success in their studies

The increasing diversity of the student population in higher education gives rise to issues relating to the ability to engage all students in productive and fulfilling learning experiences. With diversity comes an acknowledgement of the variety of learning spaces occupied by incoming students, and the need to ensure that those spaces become places of learning. The strategy proposed in this study to transform space into place is an online pre-test of first year engineering students, the Get Set quiz. This quiz enables commencing engineering students to self-test their readiness to study their chosen courses by measuring and providing individualised feedback on a number of cognitive and non-cognitive factors shown to be significant predictors of academic success. The best time for such self-assessment is prior to the commencement of their studies. Get Set helps set the scene for establishing place, by giving students the confidence that they have made an informed career choice, and/or by linking them with appropriate support mechanisms if necessary. Students are directed to support both on campus and online to help develop an individual study plan to address any knowledge and skills gaps. This proactive approach to independent learning improves students' self-awareness and helps them self-reflect on their approaches to learning, better preparing them for their studies

Get set for success: using online self-assessments to motivate first year engineering students to engage in and manage their learning [Final report]

Using online self-assessments to motivate first year engineering students to engage in and manage their learning project aimed to address the looming skills shortage in the Australian engineering profession by better identifying the key factors underpinning student success in transitioning to engineering studies. This information could then be used to develop tools and strategies to: - encourage more students to consider careers in engineering; - help engineering students transition to university studies; and - retain more engineering students through to graduation. The two-year project built on King (2008) and Godfrey and King's (2011) Australian and Learning Teaching Council (ALTC) projects which aimed at developing strategies to build student numbers in engineering programs and improve progression and graduation rates. This project was designed to help students make an informed career choice and successfully transition to university life. It focused on better understanding the traits and skill sets that typically are suited to engineering studies by identifying key factors that predict success in the first year program

Predicting occupational strain and job satisfaction: the role of stress, coping, personality, and affectivity variables

Four studies employed path analysis to examine how measures of occupational stressors, coping resources, and negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) interact to predict occupational strain. The Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1987) was used to measure stress, strain, and coping. The Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) was used for the affectivity variables. The hypothesised model showed NA and PA as background dispositional variables that influenced relations among stress, strain, and coping while still allowing stress and coping to have a direct influence on strain. Goodness of fit indices were acceptable with the model predicting 15 per cent of the variance in stress, 24 per cent of coping, and 70 per cent of strain. Study 2 replicated these findings. Study 3 added a positive outcome variable, job satisfaction (JSI: Brayfield & Rothe, 1951) to the model. The expanded model again fit the data well. A fourth study added a global measure of personality (NEO-FFI: Costa & McCrae, 1991) to the model tested in Study 3. Results indicated that personality measures did not add anything to the prediction of job satisfaction and strain in a model that already included measures of stressors, coping resources, NA and PA. The series of four studies yielded a reliable structural model that highlights the influence of organizational and dispositional variables on occupational strain and job satisfaction

A measure of attitudes towards flexible work options

[Abstract]: A short questionnaire, the Flexible Work Options Questionnaire (FWOQ), was developed to measure workers’ attitudes to the use of flexible work options (FWOs) such as flexible hours and part-time work. The questionnaire was used with two groups of employees, 344 public service personnel, and 212 non-academic staff from a regional university. In Study 1, the FWOQ was shown to have moderate reliability and to consist of two factors: I, Work/family Balance, and II, Barriers. The Barriers factor did not emerge as a single factor in Study 2. Work/family Balance issues were stronger predictors of the use of FWOs than Barriers. These results were explained in terms of compromises that parents make in order to achieve family/work balance. Further development was suggested to refine the Barriers subscales and to investigate gender differences

Career decision making difficulties of adolescent boys and girls

The Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ; Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996) was administered to investigate for gender differences in career decision making difficulties faced by young people. As well as assessing their level of difficulties according to the three subscales of the CDDQ – Lack of Readiness, Lack of Information, and Inconsistent Information, measures were also obtained of students’ undecidedness, their satisfaction with their decisional status, and their confidence in their current career choice. The sample consisted of 347 Australian high school students (199 females, 148 males) from single-gender and coeducational schools in a regional city in South-East Queensland. No gender differences were found in overall levels of career decidedness, although boys reported a higher level of career knowledge, and girls indicated that they were more motivated and more flexible with regard to careers. Type of school attended had little impact on the outcomes measured in this study, with the only difference being that students at single-gender schools were more undecided than students from coeducational schools

Restoring the balance: women's experiences of retiring from elite sport

Being an elite athlete requires single-minded determination, commitment, and focus on sport. These can have a detrimental effect on long-term career plans, with decisions and preparations for life after sport being put on hold for a time, or being given a lower priority. In order to assist athletes take a longer-term and more holistic view of their life goals, the Athlete Career and Education (ACE) program was developed through the Australian Institute of Sport. This paper presents a brief overview of a 5-year longitudinal study which was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACE program and looks specifically at the sport and retirement experiences of four female elite-level athletes: three netballers, and a gymnast

Flexible work options within the organisational system

The availability of flexible work options provides an opportunity for individuals to shape their careers in order to optimise their work and life goals. This study takes a systems theory approach to examine how the use of flexible work options influences relationships and interactions in the workplace. The Flexible Work Options Questionnaire (Albion, 2004) and the Voice Climate Survey (Langford, 2002) were administered online to 108 employees (70 females, 38 males) from a chartered accounting firm in Australia. Results suggest positive outcomes for organisations, providing support for the use of flexible work options by those wanting to make career choices that balance the demands of work and non-work roles

Career decision making for young elite athletes: are we ahead on points?

[Abstract]: A comparison is made between the career decision-making of high school students who are also elite athletes and a sample of non-athlete students. The 226 athletes (111 females, 115 males) in the study were on sporting scholarships with the Australian Institute of Sport or state/territory institutions. Measures included the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. The nonathlete data were obtained from 272 high school students (149 females, 123 males). Only three athletes indicated a singular focus on a career in professional sport. There were significant relationships between athletic identity and career decision difficulties, especially in relation to dysfunctional myths, and only one difference between difficulties reported by athletes and non-athletes. Tentative conclusions are drawn about the factors that impact on career decision making among elite athletes and possible directions for future research

Testing a model of the predictors of change success

[Abstract]: Research has suggested that commitment to organisational change is a mediator between employees’ perceptions of organisational climate and change-related outcomes such as behavioural support for change. This study sought to further clarify the role of one component of commitment to organisational change (affective commitment) in mediating the relationships between two aspect of organisational climate, perceptions of change management and change success. We used structural equation modelling to examine a structural model using two large data sets (N = 2549 and 2737 respectively). We also conducted a subgroups analysis which examined whether the one structural model was suitable across four separate organisations which comprised the second data set. The overall structural model confirmed that affective commitment to organisational change was a mediator of the relationships between the two aspect of organisational climate, perceptions of change management and change success. The structural model was also similar for the four organisations. These results suggest that while the role of affective commitment to organisational change was similar across the four organisations, perceptions of change management and positive organisational climate were the most important predictors of change success

Factors influencing career decision making in adolescents and adults

The structure of the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ, Gati, Osipow, & Krausz, 1996) was validated and compared across two age cohorts using Structural Equation Modelling. One hundred and twenty-one upper high school students (78 girls, 43 boys – mean age 15.92 years) participated in Study 1, while 127 adults (86 females, 41 males – mean age 33.44 years) completed the survey for Study 2. While the model confirmed the multidimensional structure of the CDDQ, five first-order factors provided a better fitting model than the three higher-order factors postulated by Gati et al. The model fitted both groups, suggesting that a common pattern of difficulties was experienced by people of different ages, although older career deciders reported fewer difficulties with Internal Conflicts and Conflicts with Others than did students