Original Discipline: Healthcare Career Exploration
The Student Struggle
Students may struggle to compare career options, identify relevant information, and make recommendations supported by evidence.
When researching possible careers, students may focus on a single appealing characteristic, such as salary or job responsibilities, without considering the broader requirements, expectations, and personal circumstances that influence career decisions.
Students may also have difficulty explaining why one option is more appropriate than another.
Intended Learning Outcome
Students will be able to research and compare healthcare careers, identify relevant qualifications and responsibilities, and make a recommendation supported by evidence from their research.
Thinking Students Practice
Primary Capacity: Judgment
Students evaluate multiple career options, consider relevant factors, and make a recommendation supported by evidence and reasoning.
Secondary Capacity: Transfer & Application
Students apply information gathered through research to a realistic decision-making situation involving another person's interests and career goals.
The Learning Activity
Students are presented with a situation in which a friend or family member wants to pursue a healthcare career but is unsure which profession would be the best fit.
Students research three different healthcare careers, examining their responsibilities, working environments, educational requirements, necessary skills, and potential advantages and disadvantages.
They compare their findings and select one career to recommend.
The emphasis is on making a thoughtful recommendation rather than simply collecting facts about the careers.
Students must explain how the information they gathered supports their decision.
Try This With Your Students
Which Healthcare Career Would You Recommend?
The Scenario
A friend or family member is interested in pursuing a career in healthcare.
They enjoy helping people and want to find a profession where they can make a meaningful difference. However, they are unsure which healthcare career would be the best choice.
They have asked you to research several possibilities and help them make an informed decision.
Your challenge is to investigate three healthcare careers and recommend one based on what you discover.
Your Challenge
Step 1: Explore Three Careers
Choose three healthcare careers to investigate.
For each career, research:
What professionals in this career do.
Where they typically work.
What education or training is required.
Whether previous experience is necessary.
Which skills are important.
What people may enjoy or find challenging about the work.
Step 2: Compare Your Findings
Organize the information you gathered about the three careers.
Consider:
How are the careers similar?
What are the most important differences?
Which career requires the most preparation?
What characteristics might make each career appealing or challenging?
Step 3: Make a Recommendation
Choose the career you would recommend to your friend or family member.
Explain your choice using at least two reasons supported by your research.
Consider whether another career might be more appropriate for someone with different interests or circumstances.
Step 4: Discuss Your Decision
Share your recommendation with another student.
Your partner should ask questions such as:
Why did you choose that career?
What information influenced your decision?
What advantages does it offer compared with the other options?
What additional information might change your recommendation?
Share Your Thinking
Write a brief recommendation that identifies your preferred healthcare career, explains at least two supporting reasons, and acknowledges one possible limitation of your choice.
Remember: The goal is not simply to identify a good healthcare career. It is to compare alternatives, evaluate information, and explain why a particular recommendation makes sense.
Making Student Thinking Visible
Students submit a comparison of three healthcare careers and a written recommendation.
The instructor looks for evidence that students have identified relevant information, considered meaningful differences among the careers, and used their research to support a decision.
The quality of the explanation matters more than which career the student ultimately recommends.
The discussion component provides an additional opportunity for students to defend their reasoning and consider whether their recommendation might change with new information.
Adapt This Scenario
The underlying instructional approach asks students to research several alternatives, compare relevant characteristics, and make a justified recommendation for a particular situation.
Business: Students compare three potential vendors, suppliers, or service providers and recommend one based on organizational needs.
Information Technology: Students investigate three technology solutions and recommend the most appropriate option for a client.
Environmental Science: Students compare possible approaches to addressing an environmental problem and justify their preferred strategy.
Education: Students examine several teaching approaches or student-support strategies and recommend one for a particular learning challenge.
Across disciplines, the essential thinking remains the same: gathering information, comparing alternatives, considering relevant needs, and making an evidence-supported recommendation.
Original AI Prompt and Faculty Revisions
The original faculty contribution presented a scenario in which students help a friend or family member select a healthcare career.
The activity asked students to research three healthcare professions and compare their responsibilities, work settings, education and training requirements, necessary experience, and important skills.
Students were then expected to recommend one career and provide at least two reasons supporting their choice.
The contribution also included reading supports, such as identifying unfamiliar vocabulary, underlining important information, and recording brief notes while reading.
The activity concluded with a partner discussion in which students explain and defend their recommendations.
This library version preserves the original career comparison and recommendation activity while organizing it into the library's standard format.
The learning outcome, intellectual capacity categories, and cross-disciplinary adaptations are suggested additions developed for this library. The original document does not provide a separate AI prompt or document subsequent faculty revisions.