Granello / Chapters 13 and 18

Granello’s (2001) article did a nice job of using Bloom’s Taxonomy to discuss the different levels of writing ability when it comes to graduate level research papers. I think it is beneficial for grad students to know the difference between what constitutes as paper written at a knowledge level versus an evaluative level. Obviously the goal would be for everybody to write at the evaluation level or at least the synthesizing level, but because every student has a different educational background, some might not have been exposed to or required to write at these higher levels, which makes it difficult for graduate school instructors who, rightfully so, expect that their students be writing at high levels. I thought that the most beneficial aspect of this particular article was the section that listed strategies for moving from one level to the next one. This illustrates how high level writing is the outcome of a process that any writer can attain by taking it one step at a time, rather than a skill that a student either has or does not have. Now that we are at the point of completing the draft of our literature review, it will be helpful for us as a group to determine what level our draft is at and how to improve it.  

Chapter 13 of the textbook examined some of the programs and activities currently used by career counselors in post-secondary institutions. It was interesting, but perhaps not surprising, to see how high the percentage is of people who are underemployed which includes part-time workers seeking full-time work as well as those in positions that do not require the use of their education. I know a lot of people from my college, including myself, who fall into the second category of working in jobs that do not require college degrees. This can be a source of frustration and lead to dissatisfaction with your work because you feel overqualified for the job that you’re doing. In chapter 18, Brown (2012) made some predictions about the future of the career development field. As expected, the internet seems likely to become an even more prominent source of career information. In my mind this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the internet instantly provides enormous amounts of information to those who are seeking career guidance. However, if the sources are not credible, or if the person does not have a solid foundation on which they are starting their search, it seems likely that the person could quickly become confused or potentially misinformed. As future counselors, this is something to be aware of because many of our clients will be young students who might not be able to determine what constitutes a credible internet source. Our job then is to be knowledgeable about what sources should be used, and then being able to lead our clients to those sources.

References

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling and career development. (10^th Ed.). New York: Pearson Education Inc.

Granello, D. H.  (2001). Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: Using Bloom's taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews.  Counselor Education & Supervision, 40, 292-307.