Help students reflect on, plan for, and communicate their workforce readiness
Reflection prompts | Career planning templates or IDPs | Resume and interview preparation |A career planning course
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The cycle of self-regulated learning![[creative commons]](/images/creativecommons_16.png)
Use reflection prompts
Overview
Reflection prompts are assignments or exam questions that ask students to describe their own thinking about a topic, or how their thinking has changed over time. Reflection is an important component of the cycle of self-regulated learning, which helps students monitor and process their learning. In this case, reflection can help them monitor their learning about their interests, skills, and potential jobs and career paths. Ideally, they help students reflect on their progress towards the learning outcomes for an activity, unit, or course. A reflection prompt as part of a laboratory assignment might ask, "Reflect on the skills you practiced describing and identifying rocks. How did your skills change? Where do you feel you still need improvement?" A reflection prompt can also focus on a particular job or career that they have heard about from a visiting speaker or alumna/us, such as, "What is appealing to you about the job or career path you heard about? What did you find surprising?" Course-level reflection prompts can help students connect their describe how they are making progress towards the learning outcomes for the course.
Why use this strategy
- Prompts students to reflect on and document the skills and abilities they are developing in real time.
- Helps students become aware of their learning process and set goals for skill development.
- Helps students better understand their own skills and interests and the alignment between their skills and interests and potential careers.
- The ability to reflect and regulate learning is a workforce skill that will benefit students in the future.
Tips for success
- Model reflection to show students how to do it and to make your expectations clear.
- Be specific in what you are asking students to reflect on to help guide their thinking.
- Use a grading scheme that focuses on thoughtfulness and thoroughness in responses to reflection prompts rather than looking for a particular response.
- Use reflection prompts consistently throughout a course so that students have multiple opportunities to check in on their learning.
- Tie reflection prompts to your learning outcomes at both the course and activity level.
Resources
Develop Self-Regulated Learners: Choosing and Using the Best Strategies for the Task from the SAGE 2YC project
Use planning templates or Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
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Graphic depiction of an Individual development plan for the career goal of geotechnical consulting
Overview
A career planning template or individual development plan (IDP) provides a structured way to guide and document students' thinking about themselves and their goals in the context of future careers. For example, an IDP might ask students to identify a career-related goal, identify the skills and experiences needed to achieve that goal (or ask them to reflect on specific skills you identify as important), reflect on which of those skills and experiences they have and which they need to develop, and make a plan for closing any gaps. Descriptions of general job types, such as those available through O*NET Online and AGI, can provide information about the skills and experiences needed for specific careers. This is also a godd strategy to introduce students to professional licensure and other certifications like HAZWOPER, and make a plan for achieving them if needed. A career planning template or IDP could be introduced to students as part of academic advising, as part of a course, or as part of several courses that revisit and update the same document.
Why use this strategy
- Prompts students to reflect on and document the skills and abilities they've developed, strengths and weaknesses, values, experiences, and unique aspects of themselves
- Helps students take ownership of their future and guide their decision-making
- Gives students something they can take with them and continue to build on both during school and after graduation
- Helps students think long-term and define the transferable skills they are developing
- Familiarizes students with skills and dispositions they may see in job advertisements or may be asked to demonstrate as part of the job application process
Tips for success
- Create defined times in courses or during advising meetings for students to complete templates.
- Define and give examples of strengths and weaknesses, values, skills to demystify terminology.
- Encourage students to revisit templates at different times during their studies to facilitate conversations about growth and opportunities, and to incorporate students' changing ideas and goals.
- Model completing a career planning template for your students, for example, by setting your own career-related goal.
- Take advantage of self-assessments that may be available at your Career Center.
Resources
Example Career Planning Reflection Template from Enhancing Postgraduate Environments, ERASMUS+ Programme UN
Career Compasses from the American Geosciences Institute provide overviews of and pathways to a variety of geoscience careers.
O*NET Online, an example search for "geologist" occupations, and the profile of Geoscientists
Incorporate resume and interview preparation
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A job interview.
Overview
Incorporating resume and interview preparation into your course is a way to help students recognize and document skills and experiences that will help make them competitive for jobs. For example, toward the end of your course, you could ask students to reflect on what skills and dispositions the course helped them develop and then ask students to update their resumes to reflect those skills. As another example, you could provide students with a list of behavioral interview questions and ask them to practice writing and/or speaking responses to those questions that draw from their experiences in your course. Behavioral interview questions ask candidates to describe a time when they had to use skills or dispositions such as teamwork, adaptability, time management, communication, and leadership (e.g., "Tell me about a time when you....).
Why use this strategy
- Helps students keep track of their development as it happens.
- Helps students connect their course experiences to desired workforce skills.
- Encourages regular updates to resumes and helps students prepare for the job application process.
- Helps instructors reflect on the skills and dispositions developed in their courses and may encourage instructors to make those connections more obvious to students.
Tips for success
- Make it clear to students why you are asking them to update their resume or practice answering interview questions.
- Encourage discussion and sharing among students; some students may more easily recognize the skills and dispositions they are developing in your course.
- Share example responses to behavioral interview questions, and encourage use of the STAR strategy for answering behavioral interview questions (see Resources below)
- Repeat these activities across several courses so that students are better prepared for the job application process.
Resources
Example behavioral interview questions from the University of Virginia
STAR method for responding to behavioral interview questions from MIT Career Advising and Professional Development
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Offer a career planning course
Overview
A dedicated career planning course allows you and your students to focus on career awareness, preparation, and planning rather than incorporating them as add-ons to other courses or activities where students might overlook their importance. Such a course could be optional or a required component of a degree program, or could be the main focus of an already established senior seminar.
Why use this strategy
- Helps students see the importance of career planning.
- Concentrating career planning into a single course might be easier to implement than distributing career planning across the curriculum because it does not require buy-in and coordination from multiple instructors.
- Concentrating career planning into a single course ensures that happens (i.e., career planning activities might be cut from other classes when instructors are pressed for time).
Tips for success
- Use the course as a time to explicitly discuss and practice dispositions such as professionalism (e.g., no late arrivals to class; turn in assignments on time; clearly communicate any expected absences or delays).
- Use the course as an opportunity for students to practice networking (e.g., invite local professionals to visit class; coordinate a class visit to a job fair or meeting of a professional society's local chapter).
Resources
Pawloski, J. and Shabram, P. (2019) Building engagement in STEM through career courses at two-year institutions: Journal of College ScienceTeaching, v. 49, no. 2, p. 9-15. DOI: 10.2505/4/jcst19_049_02_9
Viskupic, K., Wenner, J.A., Harrigan, C.O., Shafer, G. (2022) A mixed methods study of the challenges for geoscience majors in identifying potential careers and the benefits of a career awareness and planning course, Journal of Geoscience Education, DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2022.2147383