Publication Date

12-1978

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Emmett Burkeen, Vernon Sheeley

Degree Program

Department of Counseling and Student Affairs

Degree Type

Education Specialist

Abstract

The Job Corps program is designed to provide academic and vocational training to high school dropouts. It is assumed that in order for a young person to succeed in our society certain values, such as good health, education, job satisfaction, and desire to earn an acceptable pay, are required. Job Corps seeks to foster these values in the young men and women who enter this training program. To evaluate the effectiveness of this process a study was conducted regarding the effect of value clarification on male Job Corps enrollees. Over a ninety-day period an experimental group of twenty (20) enrollees received a treatment consisting of weekly individual and small group counseling sessions with a view to value clarification. A control group of twenty (20) was also established but without any treatment involved. These two groups were randomly selected from enrollees entering the Job Corps. Each participant was administered a pretest of three instruments purported to measure values: the F-Scale, the Willoughby Schedule, and the Ohio Work Values Inventory. At the end of the experimental period each participant remaining in the two groups was administered the same three instruments as a posttest. An analysis of the data revealed no statistical significance in the measurement of values by these instruments. It was determined that the sociological milieu of the participants created a high degree of hostility toward any form of testing. There were, however, certain trends in the posttest results of the experimental group that indicated a positive effect of the treatment in identifying values. At the conclusion of the study there were seventeen (17) participants remaining in the experimental group while only thirteen (13) participants remained in the control group. If one regards Job Corps enrollee length of stay as being increased by treatments in value clarification, this study seems to be significant. It is recommended that further study be done to identify and utilize in the Job Corps program those components in the treatment deemed to be most effective.

Disciplines

Adult and Continuing Education | Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership

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