The development of a construction industry interest inventory

[Extract from Chapter 1] Industrial arts courses have tended to focus upon selected trades and crafts as a basis for subject matter. For several years, one of the major objectives of industrial arts education has been to interpret industry in its vast context. Unfortunately, the context or the body of knowledge of industry has never been agreed upon by a consensus of leaders in the field. Industry, obviously, is composed of more than selected trades or crafts. It also includes a complexity of other factors representing three major divisions: namely, industrial management practices, industrial production practices, and industrial personnel practices. At present, a practice-theory gap exists betxveen the major goals of industrial arts education and the industrial practices being taught in the public schools. Attempts are being made to solve this problem, and industrial arts instructional materials are being developed to encompass the whole field of activities in industry. During the 1967-1968 school year, approximately 1200 junior high school industrial arts students took a course entitled The World of Construction, Industrial Technology I on an experimental basis. The subject matter for the course was derived from the content of construction industry technology. The course is being offered at three field evaluation centers: Cincinnati, Ohio; Miami, Florida; and the greater Trenton-New Brunswick area, New Jersey. The instructional materials for the course were developed by the Industrial Arts Curriculum Project, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The problem of this study is directly related to the students' interest in the content of this course. The purpose of this study is to develop a construction industry interest inventory. An interest inventory covering only the construction Industry practices included in The World of Construction, Industrial Technology I is not presently available. As a result, students' Interests in these construction industry practices cannot be identified, measured, or ranked in the older of their importance as perceived by the student. The assumption that man is curious about industry-requires an interest inventory to assess students' interests in construction industry technology. For the purposes of assessing interest in these construction industry practices, the interest inventory items will consist of only practices within the construction industry technology. The conceptual framework in which the above problem exists is limited to construction industry technology, one of the sub-elements of industrial technology.