Delivering Life Planning Education within and beyond the senior secondary English classroom through an integrated approach to designing a career-related unit

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Background

To provide students with career-related experiences in preparation for further study or career development in accordance with their interests and abilities, Bethel High School, HKWMA Chu Shek Lun Secondary School, Ho Ngai College (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen) and Tsang Pik Shan Secondary School revamped their senior secondary English Language curricula by infusing a series of learning tasks and experiential learning activities related to Life Planning Education. Students from these schools participated in an internship programme piloted by the Language Learning Support Section. Target students’ academic and personal development was monitored so as to conceptualise the impact of the curriculum design as well as to identify further areas for development of the programme.

Level(s)

S4-5

Strategies used

To integrate Life Planning Education (LPE) in the S4/S5 English Language curricula, the following two strategies were adopted in the design of a career-related unit.

1. Infusing Life Planning Education elements into classroom learning tasks
   To develop students’ work-related knowledge, skills and values and attitudes in a wholesome manner, LPE elements were incorporated into English learning tasks of S4-5 units on the world of work (e.g. “Internships” and “Work”) in the collaborating schools. Such thematic infusion not only equipped students with the knowledge and skills required in the senior secondary English Language subject, but also fostered students’ self-understanding, career exploration and/or personal planning – the core elements of Life Planning Education (Education Bureau, 2014).
   
   In addition, to cater for the learning needs of senior secondary students, relevant task-based learning and teaching materials were tailored based on individual school contexts. For example, some of the tasks adopted formats of the English Language assessments of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination so as to familiarise students with the task requirements of public assessments. Different schools also chose different entry points according to students’ needs such as developing various language skills (e.g. reading, writing, integrated language skills), cultivating generic skills and work attitudes needed for career and further studies, or making informed decisions about internship choices.

2. Providing students with work experience through short-term internship
   To foster students’ whole-person development and lifelong learning capacity (Education Bureau, 2014), each of the four schools nominated one student to participate in the “Secondary School Student Attachment Programme” organised by the Language Learning Support Section, Education Bureau in July 2019. Participating students were expected to:

• strengthen and extend their English Language learning beyond the classroom;

• develop some basic work-related skills and positive work attitudes; and

• foster self-understanding, personal planning, goal setting, and reflective habits of mind.

(For details of the pilot programme organised in 2017/18 such as the objectives and underlying principles, please refer to the article titled Delivering career and life planning education beyond the classroom through an experiential learning job attachment programme in the previous issue of our Compendium.)

What happened

1. School-based career-related thematic units
   Below shows a brief outline of the different thematic units implemented in the project schools:

Project schools	Levels	Units	Major learning tasks
Bethel High School	S4	“My Dream Job”	Reading job advertisements and learning the requirements of different jobs Writing a letter of application Reading and role-playing the golden rules for a job interview
Tsang Pik Shan Secondary School	S4	“Career Planning”	Knowing about different jobs Doing a “career personality” test to understand how personality traits may affect career choice
HKWMA Chu Shek Lun Secondary School	S5	“Internship”	Learning about internship options and making an informed choice Learning how to land the first job Doing self-reflection on work skills and attitudes, goal setting and action planning on how to self-improve
Ho Ngai College (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen)	S5	“Work”	Learning about different work options Making an informed choice on work options




2. The joint-school attachment programme
   Upon completion of the school-based thematic units, and under the guidance of the school teachers, the student interns set their own learning goals and expectations to prepare themselves for the programme.
   
   During the four-day attachment programme, a rich variety of tasks/activities were arranged for the student interns to experience different roles and tasks at work – teacher assistants, reporters/editors, research/project assistants. The following is a summary of the major tasks assigned, expected learning outcomes together with the work process/products of the student interns:

i. Role: Teacher assistants
Major tasks	Main learning objectives	Examples of student interns’ work process/products
Researching information to draw up a proposal on organising a life-wide learning (LWL) activity for junior secondary students	Develop reading and speaking skills Develop communication, collaboration, organisation and information technology (IT) skills Encourage creativity Nurture a reflective mind and develop feedback-giving skills	The interns discussed the information searched enthusiastically. An excerpt of the feasible and creative proposal put forward by the interns after the discussion.
Presenting the LWL proposal and giving feedback to each other		The interns delivered their proposals effectively with the use of visual aids and body gestures in a formal meeting setting with their colleagues.

ii. Role: Reporters/Editors
Major tasks	Main teaching and learning objectives	Examples of student interns’ work process/products
Attending a training session to learn video-taking and -editing skills	Develop IT and problem solving skills	The interns took an active role in exploring how to set up equipment as well as shoot and edit videos.
Preparing interview questions	Develop communication and collaboration skills	The interns worked cooperatively: pair discussion after the group brainstorming.
Conducting and recording an interview	Develop speaking, interviewing and listening skills Foster communication and collaboration skills Apply target IT skills	The interns dedicated themselves to the roles they agreed upon the career interview task.

iii. Role: Research/Project assistants
Major tasks	Main teaching and learning objectives	Examples of student interns’ work process/products
Attending a training session on using computer software (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and office equipment	Know about the work environment Develop IT skills	The student interns earnestly tried out the computer software and posed questions to clarify their understanding. The interns worked attentively on clerical tasks.
Producing an event record for a professional development activity (e.g. scanning questionnaires, crunching questionnaire data, writing photo captions)	Apply target IT skills Develop writing skills	The interns processed the questionnaire data efficiently using the office equipment and Excel.
Producing and editing video clips for the interview conducted	Develop listening skills Apply target IT skills	The interns worked industriously despite difficulties in transcribing the career interview conducted. An excerpt of the video clip (with subtitles) produced by the interns.




Impact

1. Student learning level
1. Students in general

   The school-based thematic units about work and internship could successfully promote students’ self-understanding (e.g. personality, interests or skills/abilities), encourage exploration of career/internship opportunities, as well as foster development of learning/career aspiration and decision-making skills. The career-related unit has built up students’ language and employability skills that would prepare them for transition to work. Some students have learnt speaking and writing skills needed for making a job application while some others have learnt how to handle or ace the first work experience. More encouragingly, some students were more aware of making self-improvement (in terms of attitudes, behaviour and/or skills) for present study and future work.

2. Participants of the Secondary School Student Attachment Programme
1. Enhanced language skills

The programme has enhanced the interns’ following English language sub-skills:

Reading	Read extensively (besides the textbook), e.g. charts, questionnaires, proposals
Listening	Understand the speakers’ views and feelings in discussions, interviews and presentations
Writing	Use appropriate vocabulary and structures to present ideas
Speaking	Present ideas more clearly and confidently




The interns presented their reflections passionately with the effective use of PowerPoint.

The learning gained from the school-based thematic units could effectively prepare the target students for taking the real-life summer internship in the cognitive, linguistic and/or affective domains. In an interview, the interns revealed that the previously learnt knowledge about internships and the language tasks in the classroom could prepare them for the real internship programme outside school. They said the viewing and presentation classroom learning task on “How to land the first job” had provided them with very useful tips for proper etiquette and professional behaviour in the workplace.

An intern, together with her classmates, presented in class the tips on how to land the first job.

The students were also given opportunities to showcase their improvement after the completion of the programme. For example, one intern demonstrated effective communication strategies when performing her S6 English Language School-based Assessment task whereas another intern showed impressive presentation skills while sharing his work experiences with other students at school.



The interns shared their work attachment experiences in the school assemblies to benefit all students.

2. Developed generic skills and work-related attitudes

While the programme enabled the individuals to develop different generic and workplace skills such as problem solving (analysing the reasons/nature of problems), time management (planning the use of time) and communication skills (expressing ideas and present data clearly), more obvious growth was found among all interns in information technology skills (using office equipment and software to process data, edit videos and add subtitles).

Similarly, as indicated in students’ self-reflections, the extent of attitude change (e.g. being more reflective, responsible) varied across individuals. Yet, almost all interns reported that they had developed perseverance, confidence and commitment after the programme. The work portfolio entries below exhibited the reflective thinking and a growing sense of confidence of an intern over the course of the programme:




The work portfolio entries of an intern: Switching from Chinese (Day 1 of the programme) to English (Day 4 of the programme)

3. Deepened self-understanding for further development

Students’ self-understanding and awareness of their own abilities and personality grew after the programme. In the interviews, some interns shared that the pair and team work tasks during the attachment period made them realise the need to improve their communication skills (listening and taking instructions carefully, clarifying understanding) and collaboration skills (taking on different roles in pair/group work and work cooperatively, being open, responsive and supportive to promote team work).

4. Achieved better academic results and established career plans and goals

As seen in the excerpts of self-reflections below, the programme inspired the interns to think about their study plans and career choices:



Most encouragingly, the attachment programme has nurtured a growth mindset in most interns. The self-discovery journey to improve oneself in the programme has driven the interns to set higher goals to challenge themselves. Academically, most interns said after the programme they aimed to achieve higher in English Language of the 2020 HKDSE examination and some have indeed accomplished their study goals set. In one case, the intern, a newly-arrived student from the Mainland who had a late start in learning English, made remarkable progress after the attachment and started to attempt the more challenging part of the HKDSE English Language examination (Part B2). With his perseverance, he has attained highly promising results in the HKDSE.

One of the interns, Jackson, is now pursuing tertiary education in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology majoring in Information Systems.

2. Curriculum level
   

   The curriculum design diagram below summarises the learning gained from the project on infusing LPE in the school senior secondary English Language curriculum using an integrated approach:







Conclusion

As revealed in the study, the two-pronged approach is an effective strategy of delivering LPE inside and beyond the English classroom in the Senior Secondary Curriculum to foster English Language learning, self-understanding, career exploration as well as career planning and management. In fact, Organ (2017) stated in an article quoting Kolb (1984) that, “the workplace [is] a learning environment that can enhance and supplement formal education and can foster personal development through meaningful work and career development opportunities” (p.37).

The interns were awarded certificates for their achievements in the programme.

Bibliography

Education Bureau. (2014). Guide on Life Planning Education and Career Guidance for Secondary Schools. Hong Kong: Author.

Green, A., & Smith, E. (2001). A foot in both camps: School students and workplaces. In B. Hemmings, & C. Boylan (Eds.), Providing Quality Education and Training for Rural Australians. SPERA 17th National Conference (Vol. 12, pp. 15). SPERA.

Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

“Languages in the workplace”: embedding employability in the foreign language undergraduate curriculum. In C. Álvarez-Mayo, A. Gallagher-Brett, & F. Michel (Eds), Innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability (pp. 37-45). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017.innoconf2016.653





Bethel High School
HKWMA Chu Shek Lun Secondary School
Ho Ngai College (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen)
Tsang Pik Shan Secondary School
Peggy TSANG (Language Support Officer)