Career-cluster organization of industrial arts content around the U.S. Office of Education's fifteen career clusters¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The guide organizes industrial arts content around career clusters rather than isolated tool skills. It explains that "The U. S. Office of Education suggests fifteen career clusters as a working base for the study of a substantial number of the existing career opportunities," and that this middle school guide develops four clusters with potential for primary emphasis in industrial arts: construction, manufacturing, transportation, and communications. Within communications, content is further organized into four interrelated areas that "supplement and complement each other."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A working base of career clusters for studying existing career opportunities

Constraints¶

• Components of at least five other career clusters also have primary emphasis in industrial arts, so the four-cluster treatment is partial

Target Learners¶

• Middle school students in grades 6 through 9

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Understanding basic concepts of career clusters
• Exploring careers related to an industrial society

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Career cluster concept for organizing industrial arts study

Examples¶

• Louisiana middle-school communications industrial arts curriculum guide (drafting, electricity-electronics, graphic arts, photography)
• Exploratory laboratory program pattern: hands-on experiences leading to tentative career decisions
• Recommended scope and sequence with per-cluster course time allocations

Key Sources¶

• Communications: Industrial Arts Curriculum Guide, Middle Schools 6-9 (Tentative). (1974). Louisiana State Department of Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED120541