The author presents a concise sketch of what has happened since the State of Arizona legislature made a strong commitment to high quality career and vocational educational programs. The focus on career education has resulted in both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the State's vocational education. (Author/BP)

The central conclusion of the study is that, in developing a competency-based graduate level program for preparing vocational education curriculists, priority should be given specifically to those roles, responsibilities, and competencies identified as most important by the groups surveyed. (Author/BP)

It is important that competence be assessed in terms of qualities of behavior and not simple skills and knowledges which may or may not be compatible with a dynamic job setting. (Author/BP)

The study compared the effects of different verbal formats--visual (printed) and aural (recorded tape)--on the performance of 60 vocational high school boys (30 each of high and low reading abilities). Findings indicated high reading ability students performed significantly better; findings relating performance to verbal format were inconsistent.…

The study obtained evidence regarding the learning condition of chaining. The experimental population was 22 female industrial education students at the University of Maryland. A major contribution of the study was the recognition of the backward chaining principle (reversed stimulus-response links) as a meaningful teaching technique. (Author/BP)

Task analysis provides a means of effectively incorporating current learning theory and practice into instructional development methodology. It yields results applicable to specifying performance objectives, designing instructional activities, determining teaching strategies, and evaluating performance. (Author/BP)

A study of 179 vocational-technical teachers at 14 vocational centers in Maryland concluded that teacher morale was related to the leader behavior of the principal. Teacher morale was significantly related to the principal's system orientation as well as his person orientation. (Author/BP)

Reported on is a study which administered the Attitudes towards Career Education Inventory to members of State advisory counsils on vocational education, finding them generally favorable but minimally interested. The inventory and a memorandum of agreement between the Department of Labor and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare are…

Summarized is a study to determine the degree to which Michigan vocational teachers and administrators use or plan to use local advisory committees for planning, equipping, staffing, and reviewing local programs, and their degree of commitment to the concept. Researchers conclude that improvement is needed in all areas of concern. (AJ)

The study analyzed the cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses of educational administrators to training materials and information documents, in order to determine whether administrators at State and local levels adopt materials differently. Findings for eight research questions are presented, and implications for dissemination activities…

Process and product evidence presented in the paper indicate that the competency-based, mastery learning inservice workshop can be an effective diffusion strategy for an educational innovation. The innovation under study was a competency-based, mastery learning, individualized instruction project; the diffusion methods used were the same as the…

A study of employed Tennessee postsecondary technical teachers was conducted which resulted in a generalized profile covering their background and preparation, their priorities for teacher preparation items, and their preferences regarding content for inservice programs. Implications are drawn and recommendations made. (AJ)

Students in a multi-occupational (cluster) metals program scored higher on tests covering three metals areas than students in single-occupational programs, suggesting that, at the secondary level, general rather than special instruction in metal trades has considerable value as far as pencil and paper tests of cognitive outcomes can reveal.…

General education teachers in the study characterized the ideal student as curious, open-minded, critical, honest, and independent. Trade and industrial teachers characterized him as cooperative, honest, ambitious, competitive, and obedient. Both perceived the ideal child's attributes to be the same as those important to school success,…

The study used a five-round Delphi procedure, combining the opinions of 10 experts to provide a series of statements descriptive of certain aspects of future industrial arts programs and to identify central patterns, issues, and directions which may be examined for their effect on the field. (Author/AJ)