Career cluster concept for organizing industrial arts study¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The guide adopts the career cluster concept, holding that careers may be classified into logically related groups on the basis of identical or similar elements, enabling core educational experiences to facilitate learning across all careers within a cluster. The guide lists advantages: students can "appraise interests and abilities in a wide variety of careers," see relationships among specialized skills, exercise flexibility in occupational choice, obtain job-entry skills in several related careers, and gain transferable skills that promote adaptation to technological change.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Cluster organization requires identifying common elements across careers to establish core educational experiences

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• Junior and senior high school students exploring industrial careers

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Career awareness, exploration, and transferable technical skills

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• General goals of industrial arts: career emphasis and industrial-technological emphasis
• Industrial technology as the content base for industrial arts
• Career-cluster organization of industrial arts content around the U.S. Office of Education's fifteen career clusters

Examples¶

• Recommended scope and sequence with per-cluster course time allocations
• Louisiana middle-school communications industrial arts curriculum guide (drafting, electricity-electronics, graphic arts, photography)

Key Sources¶

• The Iowa Guide for Curriculum Improvement in Industrial Arts, K-12. A Study of Industrial Technology. (1975). Iowa State Dept. of Public Instruction. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED113517