The cost of higher education is not going down. The increased expense of tuition is a challenge for many students and their families to afford. As a result, the debt incurred by Americans in student loans is increasing. Additionally, when graduates enter the workforce, employers must invest time and money in training employees to function as productive members of their organization. Given the expense of education and burden on employers to train new hires, it would be beneficial for college graduates to earn a degree that prepares them for a career. Certain college programs such as accounting and air traffic control enjoy strong associations with student career goals.
Graduates should not discover they do not want a career that their education prepared them for after they have gone through the time and expense of completing their education. Ideally, they should discover these feelings well before graduating, allowing them to shift their educational focus to something more applicable to their interests and abilities. While internships may afford some degree of discovery, these opportunities are not always available, and the resources needed to give a student the in-depth job experience may not be available. Simulation, when properly integrated within the curriculum and appropriately facilitated, can help students gain an experience representative of what it is like to work in a particular field. Simulated experiences have the potential to be more extensive than internships, as various situations can be intentionally and realistically introduced. For instance, in the field of air traffic control, the facilitator can create unusual scenarios for the participants to experience that are important aspects of situations they must be able to handle. Simulation can be used to create these important events at times when they would be most beneficial educationally, whereas students attending an internship may not get to experience these events very often, if at all during the time they happen to be there. If the scenario were to happen during an actual internship, the students would have limited ability to participate in executing tasks required to achieve an appropriate resolution. Students at internships are often observers rather than active participants. Identifying variables that influence the degree to which a student strives for a career may help shed light on effective methods of using tools that provide instruction intended to strengthen these variables. …show more content…
These same tools may also help predict whether or not the career the student is studying for is right for them. The variables in this study include student knowledge, skill, self-efficacy, motivation, deep learning, and commitment to career choice. The tool being studied is simulation. Since the setting is taking place in higher education academic institutions specific to students studying aviation and air traffic control, the research is specifically analyzing student air traffic control knowledge, air traffic control skill, academic self-efficacy, student motivation, deep learning, and commitment to an air traffic control career before and after they experience an air traffic control (ATC) simulation laboratory course. Before a student can function in any career field, they must possess a foundation of knowledge that they can adequately pull from as they perform tasks required by their chosen career. In air traffic control, the required knowledge base is extensive. The knowledge is typically obtained through reading material and classroom lecture. At times the knowledge may be abstract, making it challenging to conceptualize. Additionally, air traffic controllers must pull knowledge from areas that may seem unrelated to a student. The use of simulation may help students grasp these challenging concepts as they are put into action, see how everything ties together, and practice using the air traffic control knowledge to develop their skill in safely directing air traffic. Providing students with a clear standard against which to gauge progress significantly enhances the responsiveness to performance feedback …show more content…
As students see the evidence of their academic success during the exercises given in the ATC simulation lab, their sense of academic self-efficacy may increase. Their increased sense of academic self-efficacy may lead them to have the motivation to take on such a challenging endeavor. Zimmerman (1995) reported Hacket and Betz’s (1989) findings that perceived self-efficacy is positively correlated with students ' choice of majors in college, the success in course work, and perseverance in the field of
Graduates should not discover they do not want a career that their education prepared them for after they have gone through the time and expense of completing their education. Ideally, they should discover these feelings well before graduating, allowing them to shift their educational focus to something more applicable to their interests and abilities. While internships may afford some degree of discovery, these opportunities are not always available, and the resources needed to give a student the in-depth job experience may not be available. Simulation, when properly integrated within the curriculum and appropriately facilitated, can help students gain an experience representative of what it is like to work in a particular field. Simulated experiences have the potential to be more extensive than internships, as various situations can be intentionally and realistically introduced. For instance, in the field of air traffic control, the facilitator can create unusual scenarios for the participants to experience that are important aspects of situations they must be able to handle. Simulation can be used to create these important events at times when they would be most beneficial educationally, whereas students attending an internship may not get to experience these events very often, if at all during the time they happen to be there. If the scenario were to happen during an actual internship, the students would have limited ability to participate in executing tasks required to achieve an appropriate resolution. Students at internships are often observers rather than active participants. Identifying variables that influence the degree to which a student strives for a career may help shed light on effective methods of using tools that provide instruction intended to strengthen these variables. …show more content…
These same tools may also help predict whether or not the career the student is studying for is right for them. The variables in this study include student knowledge, skill, self-efficacy, motivation, deep learning, and commitment to career choice. The tool being studied is simulation. Since the setting is taking place in higher education academic institutions specific to students studying aviation and air traffic control, the research is specifically analyzing student air traffic control knowledge, air traffic control skill, academic self-efficacy, student motivation, deep learning, and commitment to an air traffic control career before and after they experience an air traffic control (ATC) simulation laboratory course. Before a student can function in any career field, they must possess a foundation of knowledge that they can adequately pull from as they perform tasks required by their chosen career. In air traffic control, the required knowledge base is extensive. The knowledge is typically obtained through reading material and classroom lecture. At times the knowledge may be abstract, making it challenging to conceptualize. Additionally, air traffic controllers must pull knowledge from areas that may seem unrelated to a student. The use of simulation may help students grasp these challenging concepts as they are put into action, see how everything ties together, and practice using the air traffic control knowledge to develop their skill in safely directing air traffic. Providing students with a clear standard against which to gauge progress significantly enhances the responsiveness to performance feedback …show more content…
As students see the evidence of their academic success during the exercises given in the ATC simulation lab, their sense of academic self-efficacy may increase. Their increased sense of academic self-efficacy may lead them to have the motivation to take on such a challenging endeavor. Zimmerman (1995) reported Hacket and Betz’s (1989) findings that perceived self-efficacy is positively correlated with students ' choice of majors in college, the success in course work, and perseverance in the field of