Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Psychology graduates experience high levels of underemployment (50%), despite obtaining a range of competencies during their undergraduate studies that are highly applicable to their professional development and future endeavors in the workforce (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2021; Landrum et al., 2017). Throughout psychology courses, undergraduate students gain a number of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are sought after by employers. This study seeks to determine whether these underemployment rates are, in part, due to a lack of guidance from universities on how their curriculum and KSAOs taught connect to the workforce (Halonen & Dunn, 2018). To determine which KSAOs to examine, the full list of 167 KSAOs were initially pulled from O*NET, an online database that contains hundreds of occupational definitions. This full list of KSAOs were consolidated by subject matter experts (SMEs) to those most relevant to psychology undergraduates. This process resulted in a list of 41 appropriate KSAOs that were then evaluated against course descriptions and syllabi of core psychology classes in order to determine the level of each of the 41 KSAOs students gained by completing each course. A group of SMEs then rated the level of proficiency a student would obtain by completing an undergraduate psychology course. This was done for all 41 identified KSAOs and for all courses in the psychology curriculum and these ratings represent the KSAOs that students gain from completing undergraduate psychology courses. For the proposed research, the team will ask upper level undergraduate students to complete the same ratings as the SMEs. These ratings will determine students' perceptions of the level of KSAOs they gain by completing undergraduate psychology courses. Once students have completed their ratings, the data will be analyzed and compared to the SME data, which will provide an understanding of perceived versus actual proficiency of specific KSAOs that students gain in an undergraduate psychology program. Following this comparative analysis, the ultimate goal is to create a public crosswalk resource that students will be able to access and determine relevant KSAOs for their future careers based on completed courses.
Date
10-16-2021
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Do Psychology Students know the Job Skills they are Gaining?
Psychology graduates experience high levels of underemployment (50%), despite obtaining a range of competencies during their undergraduate studies that are highly applicable to their professional development and future endeavors in the workforce (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2021; Landrum et al., 2017). Throughout psychology courses, undergraduate students gain a number of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are sought after by employers. This study seeks to determine whether these underemployment rates are, in part, due to a lack of guidance from universities on how their curriculum and KSAOs taught connect to the workforce (Halonen & Dunn, 2018). To determine which KSAOs to examine, the full list of 167 KSAOs were initially pulled from O*NET, an online database that contains hundreds of occupational definitions. This full list of KSAOs were consolidated by subject matter experts (SMEs) to those most relevant to psychology undergraduates. This process resulted in a list of 41 appropriate KSAOs that were then evaluated against course descriptions and syllabi of core psychology classes in order to determine the level of each of the 41 KSAOs students gained by completing each course. A group of SMEs then rated the level of proficiency a student would obtain by completing an undergraduate psychology course. This was done for all 41 identified KSAOs and for all courses in the psychology curriculum and these ratings represent the KSAOs that students gain from completing undergraduate psychology courses. For the proposed research, the team will ask upper level undergraduate students to complete the same ratings as the SMEs. These ratings will determine students' perceptions of the level of KSAOs they gain by completing undergraduate psychology courses. Once students have completed their ratings, the data will be analyzed and compared to the SME data, which will provide an understanding of perceived versus actual proficiency of specific KSAOs that students gain in an undergraduate psychology program. Following this comparative analysis, the ultimate goal is to create a public crosswalk resource that students will be able to access and determine relevant KSAOs for their future careers based on completed courses.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology